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Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania no longer want to conduct electricity from Belarus to Europe. The country is losing income.
For the management team in the Belarusian capital Minsk, there has been nothing more to be gained in neighboring Baltic countries since the beginning of this week. The governments of the three Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, have imposed an entry ban and financial sanctions on head of state Alexander Lukashenko and 30 prominent Belarusian politicians.
At the same time, the Baltics are strengthening their support for the democracy movement in Belarus; politically, logistically and economically. And that’s not all: the three capitals Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius are currently negotiating a joint electrical boycott against Belarus. Specifically, the Baltics want to make it impossible for the Belarusian government to supply electricity to the EU in the future.
Soviet-era grid connection
It is cheap electricity that does not meet any of the usual EU environmental requirements. So far this has been possible due to the fact that the Baltic States have been connected to the northern European power grid for a good ten years, but at the same time they still have a grid connection to the east since the time of the sovietic Union.
The proposal to boycott Belarus’ electricity supply is much older than recent political reactions to the allegedly rigged presidential elections. It has to do with the construction of a controversial nuclear power plant in Astrawez, across the border between Lithuania and Belarus.
According to the will of the management in Minsk, this nuclear power plant, whose safety standards have not yet been controlled by international surveillance authorities, should be online in a few months and, in particular, supply electricity to the Baltic countries.
Lithuania has security concerns
While Lithuania has long opposed these plans for security reasons, a few weeks ago Latvia and Estonia were in favor of importing electricity from Belarus. However, the events of the last weeks and days have also changed this.
For the long-time Belarusian ruler, Lukashenko, not only is the political air in his own country weakening. Under his leadership, the expected benefits from electricity exports to the Baltic states are unlikely to materialize again.
