Baltic states to make a historical change away from Russian power

More than three decades after leaving the Soviet Union, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania they are preparing to disconnect the Russian electricity grid and join the EU network.

The two -day process will begin on Saturday, and residents are told to charge their devices, stock up on food and water, and prepare as if a severe climate is forecast.

Many have been told that they do not use elevators, while in some areas the traffic lights will go out.

A giant clock, especially made, will count the last seconds before the transition in a historical ceremony in the capital of Lithuania on Sunday, which was attended by the EU Chief Ursula von der Leyen.

Then, the three nations will officially go from the so -called Power Grid de Brelll, which has connected them with Russia and Belarus since the end of World War II.

The Brell grid, which represents Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, is almost completely controlled by Russia and for a long time has been seen as a vulnerability for the former Soviet republics, who are now NATO members.

After disconnecting from it, the three countries will operate in “isolated mode” for approximately 24 hours, surviving only in their own power, before integrating into the European network through Poland.

“Now we are eliminating Russia’s ability to use the electrical system as a tool of geopolitical blackmail,” said Lithuania Energy Minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas, to the AFP news agency.

“It is the culmination of efforts for more than 10 years or 20 years, to reduce that energy dependence,” said Professor David Smith of the Baltic Research Unit of the University of Glasgow to the BBC.

“When the Baltic states joined the EU and NATO, they all talked about that they were an island of energy that still depended on that joint electricity network with Belarus and Russia,” Smith said. “That has been completely broken now.”

The tensions between the Baltic and Russia states, which share a combined border of 543 miles long (874 km), have skyrocketed since the large -scale invasion of Russia of Ukraine in February 2022.

Since then, a series of alleged sabotage incidents involving electricity cables and pipes in the Baltic Sea have caused fears that Moscow can retaliate against change towards EU energy.

In the last 18 months, at least 11 cables that are executed under the Baltic Sea have been damaged. In a recent case, A “shadow fleet” ship from Russia de Petroleros was accused of damaging the main power of Estonia In the Gulf of Finland. The Kremlin declined to comment.

NATO has not accused Russia, but has responded by launching a new patrol mission of the region called Baltic Sentry.

“We cannot rule out some kind of provocation. That is why letters and foreigners security authorities are on a maximum alert,” Dasting President Edgars Rinkēvičs said Wednesday.

“Clearly, there are risks, we understand it very well,” echoed the Prime Minister of Latvia, Evika Silina. “But risks are identified and there is a contingency plan.”

In recent months, frequent emergency operating tests have been carried out to help prepare for possible attacks aimed at the energy system, he told BBC News, a spokesman at the NATO Energy Security Excellence Center.

The head of the Cybersecurity Center of Estonia, Gert Auvaart, told BBC News in a statement that Russia “can try to exploit this period to create uncertainty,” but said that due to international cooperation, Estonia was “well prepared even for what worse- case scenarios “.

He added that cyber attacks against the country had increased after the invasion of Ukraine in Russia, and varied from “ddos attacks driven by hacktivists (distributed from denial of service) to more sophisticated and specific operations against agencies and government companies” .

Baltic states will also live up to the wrong information related to the transition.

Shortly after notifying Russia his decision to withdraw from Brell in August 2024, misinformation campaigns arose on social networks falsely warning supply failures and very high prices if the countries leave the joint electricity grid.