Lithuania’s attempt to please its U.S. colleagues will lead to an energy crisis in all Baltic countries. RuBaltic.Ru reports
Finland is on the brink of an energy disaster and is losing interest in the anti-Russian policy of its Baltic partners. Finns blame Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia for disrupting price formation on the energy market.
“The Baltic states clearly do not want to import electricity from Russia, and there have been failures at their power plants, so now electricity is exported from Finland to the Baltics and record prices are being set in the region”, – Jukka Ruusunen, director of Finnish power grid operator Fingrid, expressed this opinion.
The Estonians were the first Baltic states to address the consequences of their mistaken rejection of the Russian energy source. Official Tallinn turned to Russia and Belarus with the aim to increase energy supplies.
The Russian side, for its part, declared its readiness to supply electricity in the maximum volume and as soon as possible. This is confirmed by the words of Alexander Panin, the acting head of Inter RAO’s trading unit.
“Under the current scheme and regime conditions, taking into account the physical capacity of the sections, it is possible to supply up to 1 GW per hour from the territory of Russia to the Baltic states. The supply of Russian electricity can be started immediately and in the maximum possible volume”, – the energy expert said.
Lithuanian managers, however, are not going to hurry with solving the common Baltic energy crisis. When consequences are felt not only by the Baltic states, but also the whole Europe, the Lithuanians are not willing to accept the obvious conclusions.
“There is no serious breakthrough on this question. Lithuania is analyzing what can be done. This problem is not being solved quickly”, – said Timo Tatar, vice-chancellor for energy issues at the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.
The Estonian Cell pulp mill is becoming uncompetitive due to unaffordable electricity prices. The plant used to be one of the largest and most progressive production facilities in Estonia, but in recent months the company has gone over the estimated budget by 5 million euros.
The proximity of the Baltic states to Russia could have been an advantage in negotiating energy contracts, but political pressure from the United States and the European Union is forcing the Baltic economies to survive while politicians literally scream about “Russian aggression”.
We shall remind that earlier News Front told its readers about how Lithuania sacrificed profitable Belarusian transit in favor of American partners