Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Baltics Leave Russian Grid for EU Electricity
A major event in world politics occurred over the weekend, and very few noticed. Perhaps in the flood of Trumpian nonsense and Super Bowl hype, the real news got lost. The Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania disconnected from the Russian power grid, and synched their systems to that of Western Europe. This take away a major point of leverage for Moscow and truly frees the Baltics from a fundamental reliance on the Russians that compromised their freedom of action. This is a serious blow to Russian hegemonist ambitions and bolsters the free nations in Eastern Europe.
"It's the culmination of efforts over more than 10 years or 20 years, to reduce that energy dependence," Professor David Smith of the Baltic Research Unit at the University of Glasgow told the BBC.
"When the Baltic States joined the EU and Nato, everybody talked about them being an energy island that was still dependent on that joint electricity network with Belarus and Russia," said Professor Smith. "That's been completely broken now."
EU President Ursula von der Leyen said: "Today history is being made: the Baltic States are switching on energy independence. The last electricity grids in Europe still linked to Russia are now fully integrated into Europe's internal energy market, with the support of over 1 billion euros of European funding over the years. The last remaining electricity lines with Russia and Belarus will now be dismantled. These chains of power lines, linking the Baltic states to hostile neighbours will be a thing of the past. This is freedom. Freedom from threats and blackmail. Congratulations on the start of this new era."
It is for this reason that the Russians have been using old ships as part of a ghost fleet that messes with the undersea cables in the Baltic Sea. CNN reported "NATO has now set up a new mission to protect undersea cables in the Baltic Sea, after the Estlink 2, a critical part of the Baltics' post-Soviet electricity infrastructure, was damaged on Christmas Day, the latest in a series of incidents involving disruption to the complex web of cables criss-crossing the Baltic Sea floor."
In the end, the connection to the Continental Europe Synchronous Area (as the grid now serving the Baltics is known) came off without a feared black-out or other chicanery. The cables linking the Baltics to the old Brell grid (which stands for Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) have been physically severed and repurposed in some instances. Going back will be well nigh impossible without a Russian invasion.
The overall effect of the change is to secure the electrical power grid of the Baltic Sea and enable the nations is serves to act without concern for direct retaliation from Moscow. This is felt outside the three small nations involved. Polish President Andrzej Duda, praised it as a "truly symbolic moment" that would make the region "more secure and resilient." He added, "It is the final step towards emancipation from the post-Soviet sphere of dependence." Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko hailed it as a "significant event for the whole of Europe".
This change might not have been necessary or even considered if Mr. Putin had been a decent neighbor. But his war against Ukraine, his threats to the Baltics and his general unwillingness to play nicely with others have added yet another foreign policy failure to his list. His army is beaten up, the flagship of his Black Sea Fleet is at the bottom of said sea, Finland and Sweden have joined NATO, and now the Baltics have joined CESA.
A true enemy of Russia would be hard put to do more to harm the Russian state than Mr. Putin has done since he started his ill-considered war.
© Copyright 2025 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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