Three decades after splitting from the former Soviet Union and 19 years since joining the EU, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania still depend on Russia to ensure a stable power system. Under the sights of the fashionable green agenda, why not prioritize first things first?

Under a deal signed in 2018, the leaders of the region, with support from Poland and the European Commission and 1.6 billion euros in European funding, agreed to upgrade their infrastructure and disconnect from the BRELL system shared with Russia and Belarus by 2025.

The Prime Ministers of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania announced at a meeting in Tallinn in May that they would be taking steps towards leaving the Russian electricity grid and joining the continental European grid earlier than the currently planned end of 2025, pending technical issues.

Kaja Kallas said the parties’ systems administrators would announce the new deadline for reconnection in August 2024. The Baltic states are set to decouple from the Russian power grid in early 2025 despite calls from Lithuania for an earlier exit, the Estonian Prime Minister confirmed to Reuters.

Lithuania has been arguing for a decoupling date of early 2024, saying that Russia is undependable and an aggressor. But this is not acceptable to Estonia, which would bear the brunt of the cost of an earlier move, as reported by ERR.