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More than three decades after leaving the Soviet Union, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania began to disconnect from the Russian electricity network and reach the EU network.
The two -day process started on Saturday morning, with residents who were informed of their devices, filling up with food and water and preparing as if bad weather was planned.
Many have been invited not to use ski lifts – while in certain areas, traffic lights will be turned off.
A giant and specially manufactured clock, will have the last seconds before the transition during a historic ceremony of the capital of Lithuania on Sunday, to the EU chief, chief Ursula von der Leyen.
The three nations will then officially move from the grid that has linked them to Russia since the years that followed the Second World War.
‘On a high alert’
The so -called Brell Power Grid – which represents Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania – is almost entirely controlled by Moscow and has long been considered a vulnerability for the old Soviet republics, which are now NATO members.
Although none of them has bought electricity in Russia since 2022, their link with the Brell network left them according to Moscow for the energy flow.
After disconnected on Saturday morning, the three countries will carry out frequency tests before joining the European grid via Poland on Sunday.
“We are now deleting Russia’s ability to use the electricity system as a geopolitical blackmail tool,” Lithuanian Minister of Lithuanian energy told the AFP news agency Zygiantas.
“This is the culmination of efforts over more than 10 or 20 years, to reduce this energy dependence,” said Professor David Smith of the Baltic Research Unit at the University of Glasgow at the BBC.
“When the Baltic States joined the EU and NATO, everyone spoke of being an energy island that still depended on this joint electricity network with Bélarus and Russia,” said Smith. “It has been completely broken now.”
The tensions between the Baltic States and Russia, which share a combined border 543 miles long (874 km), have skyrocketed since the large -scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022.
Since then, a wave of suspected sabotage incidents involving electricity cables and the Baltic Sea pipelines has aroused fears that Moscow can retaliate against change towards EU energy.
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The oil tanker Eagle s was seized by the Finnish authorities suspected of harming the underwater cables
In the past 18 months, at least 11 cables running under the Baltic Sea have been damaged. In a recent case, a ship of the “Shadow fleet” of Russia of oilmen was accused of having harmed the main power bond of Estonia in the Gulf of Finland. The Kremlin refused to comment.
NATO has not accused Russia, but responded by launching a new patrol mission in the region called Baltic Sentry.
“We cannot exclude a kind of provocation. This is why the Latvian and foreign security authorities are on alert,” said Latvian president Edgars Rinkēvičs on Wednesday.
“There is clearly risks, we understand that very well,” said Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina. “But the risks are identified and there is an emergency plan.”
“Cyberattacks”
A spokesperson for the NATO Energy Safety Center has told the BBC that in recent months, frequent emergency tests have been carried out to help prepare potential targeted attacks against the energy system.
The head of the Cybersecurity Center of Estonia, Gert Auvaart, told BBC in a statement that Russia “could try to exploit this period to create uncertainty”, but said that because of international cooperation , Estonia was “well prepared even for the worst – case scenarios”.
He added that the cyberattacks against the country had increased after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and went from “DDOS attacks focused on hacktivist (distributed service) to more sophisticated targeted operations against government agencies and companies “.
Baltic states will also be monitoring the disinformation campaigns linked to the transition.
Shortly after having informed Russia of their decision to withdraw from Brell in August 2024, campaigns emerged on social networks falsely warning of the failures of the offer and the arrow prices if the countries left the joint electricity network.
