3 Baltic states disconnect from the Soviet-era grid to merge with the European energy system
This came more than three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, ending the Baltics' final ties to oil- and gas-rich Russia. For the three countries, as well as the rest of Europe, the move was steeped in geopolitical and symbolic significance.
'The Baltic energy system is finally in our hands, we are in full control,' Lithuania Energy minister Žygimantas Vaičiūnas told reporters.
On Saturday, all remaining transmission lines between them and Russia, Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, wedged between EU members Poland and Lithuania and the sea, were switched off one by one. Lithuania first — where a specially-made 9-meter (about 29-foot) tall clock in downtown Vilnius counted down the final seconds — then Latvia a few minutes later, followed by Estonia.
For 24 hours after detaching from the Soviet-era grid, the Baltic Power System will operate independently. If all goes as planned, the power system will merge with the European energy networks on Sunday afternoon through several links with Finland, Sweden and Poland.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, as well as the presidents of Poland and the Baltic states, are expected for a ceremony in Vilnius on Sunday evening along with other dignitaries.
The Baltic countries, which are all NATO members, have often had chilly ties with Russia since declaring independence from the USSR in 1990 — and relations soured further over Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Sixteen power lines that used to connect the Baltic states with Russia and Belarus were dismantled over in recent years as a new grid linking them with the rest of the EU was created, including underwater cables in the Baltic Sea.
'This is physical disconnection from the last remaining element of our reliance on the Russian and Belarusian energy system,' Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
The three Baltic countries, which together have a 1,633-kilometer-long (1,015-mile) border with Russia and Belarus, informed Moscow and Minsk of the disconnection plan in 2024 to head off any hostile reaction.
'We have a protocol with the Russians on how everything should be disconnected,' Rokas Masiulis, CEO of Litgrid, told reporters on Saturday.
Leaders of all three countries assured their nations that the shift would go smoothly but special measures were taken to prevent possible provocations.
In Latvia, the National Armed Forces and the National Guard were instructed to carry on their duties in a reinforced mode. No incidents were reported early Saturday.
The Kaliningrad region, which has no land ties to mainland Russia, already relies on its own power generation, according to Litgrid.
Liudas Dapkus, The Associated Press
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
15 minutes ago
- New York Post
What to expect from Friday's Trump-Putin summit on US soil: Will a peace deal actually be reached?
WASHINGTON — President Trump's Friday meeting with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin may be the most-watched Washington-Moscow summit in decades — but don't expect any major decisions to be made as the US president seeks a 'more firm understanding' of how to end Moscow's war on Ukraine, sources and experts tell The Post. Trump, 79, plans to treat the meeting as a 'listening exercise' rather than a high-stakes negotiation, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. While Putin, 72, has set audacious conditions for agreeing to a cease-fire with Ukraine, the US has made no concrete decision to date on whether to support them, sources familiar with the matter tell The Post. What Russia wants Among the demands reportedly pushed by Putin — almost entirely unchanged from the start of the war nearly three-and-a-half years ago — is the formal recognition by the US and Ukraine of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts as Russian territory, despite Moscow being unable to secure them in 11 years of trying. Advertisement 4 Russia's President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump attend a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan June 28, 2019. REUTERS This recognition would include the roughly 30% of Donetsk and Luhansk that Russia does not control. The Kremlin also seeks a freezing of the current front lines. Advertisement The desires were communicated to Trump by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who met with Putin at the Kremlin last week, according to European officials. However, Russia has not made these demands public, which is one reason why Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would like a sitdown with Putin — to get the terms direct from the horse's mouth. Russia has also pushed for Ukraine to formally agree to never join NATO, a halt to shipments of Western weapons to Ukraine and a prohibition on NATO-aligned soldiers from setting foot on Ukrainian territory. 4 Putin and Trump last saw each other in 2019. AFP via Getty Images Advertisement Despite the White House insisting the war will be the primary topic, Russian officials have indicated they see the Alaska summit as a prime opportunity to discuss potential deals with the US — including opening up Alaskan airspace to Russian flights. 'We hope that the upcoming summit will give impetus to the normalization of bilateral relations,' Russia's deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told state media site Izvestia, noting that restoration of air traffic could be a possible topic. The Arctic and economic cooperation are also topics that interest Russia, Putin adviser Yuri Ushakov said, noting that the Kremlin hopes the meeting will lead to Trump going to Russia in the future. However, Russia observers have expressed concerns over the Alaska location — particularly as Moscow's hardliners have long 'lamented the loss of Russia's larger territorial extent throughout history,' George Barros of the Institute for the Study of War said Tuesday. Advertisement 'Russian nationalists have manufactured a pseudo-historical argument for why America's purchase of Alaska [in 1867] was illegitimate, and that Alaska is therefore actually legally Russian,' he said. 'This is all nonsense, of course.' 'The Russian nationalist doesn't respect the United States, but rather invents territorial disputes with its neighbors and seethes at Russa's diminished geography.' What Ukraine wants Zelensky, 47, has called Moscow's demands untenable for establishing a cease-fire, but has signaled openness to some concessions — so long as they are made as part of a final peace deal. Ending the war after more than three grueling years would be a positive for Zelensky, as his country has been ravaged by missile strikes, mines and Russian infantry. But the Ukrainian leader has been clear he will not accept peace at any price. 4 In this photo taken from video released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Thursday, July 31, 2025, a Russian Giatsint-S self-propelled gun fires towards Ukrainian positions on an undisclosed location in Ukraine. AP Zelensky has been adamant that Ukraine receive security guarantees, like NATO membership or nuclear weapons, to ensure Russia doesn't invade again in the future. 'It is impossible to talk about Ukraine without Ukraine, and no one will recognize that. That's why this conversation may be important for their bilateral track, but they cannot decide anything on Ukraine without us,' Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv Tuesday. 'I hope the US president understands that and takes into account.' What Trump wants Advertisement Friday will give the president a chance to observe Putin with his own eyes to better assess whether the Russian dictator is 'tapping [him] along' with empty promises of peace, as Trump himself has occasionally suggested might be the case. 'Only one party that's involved in this war is going to be present, and so this is for the president to go in and to get, again, a more firm and better understanding of how we can hopefully bring this war to an end,' Leavitt said. 4 Various aircrafts are seen at Anchorage Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska, United States on July 2, 2024. Anadolu via Getty Images Secretary of State Marco Rubio similarly described the summit as a 'feel-out meeting, to be honest.' Advertisement 'The president talked to Putin on the phone three or four times, OK? And nothing has come of it — or at least we haven't gotten to where we want to be,' he said. 'And so the president feels like, 'Look, I've got to look at this guy across the table. I need to see him face-to-face. I need to hear him one-on-one. I need to make an assessment by looking at him.'' Trump made ending the war in Ukraine one of his major 2024 campaign promises, and securing a peace deal would provide a major bulwark for his foreign policy legacy. To that end, Trump is expected to raise the issue of land swaps between Russia and Ukraine to gauge Putin's reaction. The US president will also speak to European leaders ahead of Friday's meeting in addition to after the sitdown, sources familiar with the preparations say. 'The next meeting will be with Zelensky and Putin, or Zelensky and Putin and me. I'll be there if they need, but I want a meeting set up between the two leaders,' Trump said Monday. 'There'll be some land swapping.'
The Hill
15 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump administration calls out human rights records of some nations accepting deported migrants
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Tuesday released human rights reports for countries worldwide, which eliminate mentions of discrimination faced by LGBTQ people, reduce a previous focus on reproductive rights and criticize restrictions on political speech by U.S. allies in Europe that American officials believe target right-wing politicians. The reports, which cover 2024 before President Donald Trump took office, reflect his administration's focus on free speech and protecting the lives of the unborn. However, the reports also offer a glimpse into the administration's view of dire human rights conditions in some countries that have agreed to accept migrants deported from the United States under Trump's immigration crackdown. 'This year's reports were streamlined for better utility and accessibility in the field and by partners,' the State Department said. The congressionally mandated reports in the past have been frequently used for reference and cited by lawmakers, policymakers, academic researchers and others investigating potential asylum claims or looking into conditions in specific countries. The reports were delayed by the Trump administration's changes The reports had been due to be released in March. The State Department said in an overview that the delay occurred because the Trump administration decided in March to 'adjust' the reports, which had been compiled during the Biden administration. Among other deletions, the reports do not include accounts from individual abuse survivors or witnesses. 'Frequently, eyewitnesses are intimidated or prevented from reporting what they know,' the overview said. 'On the other hand, individuals and groups opposed to a government may have incentive to exaggerate or fabricate abuses. In similar fashion, some governments may distort or exaggerate abuses attributed to opposition groups.' Human rights groups decried the changes in focus and omissions of certain categories of discrimination and potential abuse. 'With the release of the U.S. State Department's human rights report, it is clear that the Trump Administration has engaged in a very selective documentation of human rights abuses in certain countries,' Amnesty International said in a statement. 'In addition to eliminating entire sections for certain countries – for example discrimination against LGBTQ+ people – there are also arbitrary omissions within existing sections of the report based on the country,' it said. The reports do follow previous practices in criticizing widespread human rights abuses in China, Iran, North Korea and Russia. Laying out the poor human rights records of countries accepting migrant deportees Although such deportations did not begin until after Trump took office, the reports, with one notable exception, detail general poor human rights conditions in many of the countries that have agreed to accept migrants, even if they are not citizens of that nation. The exception is El Salvador, which was the first of several countries in Latin America and Africa to agree to accept non-citizen migrant deportees from the U.S. Despite claims from rights advocates to the contrary, the report about the country says 'there were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses' in El Salvador in 2024 and that 'the government took credible steps to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses.' Human rights groups have accused authorities of abuses, including at a notorious prison where many migrants are sent. However, for Eswatini — a small country in Africa formerly known as Swaziland — South Sudan and Rwanda, the reports paint a grimmer picture. All have agreed to accept third-country deportees from the United States. In all three countries, the reports noted 'significant human rights issues included credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings, torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment … serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, prohibiting independent trade unions or significant or systematic restrictions on workers' freedom of association.' Those governments 'did not take credible steps or action to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses,' the reports said. Singling out the treatment of white South Africans South Africa was also singled out for its human rights situation 'significantly worsening.' The report pointed to unfair treatment of white Afrikaners following the signing of major land reforms that the Trump administration has said discriminate against that minority, which ran the country's apartheid government. That system brutally enforced racial segregation, which oppressed the Black majority, for 50 years before ending in 1994. With the signing of that law in December, the report said that 'South Africa took a substantially worrying step towards land expropriation of Afrikaners and further abuses against racial minorities in the country.' It also said the government 'did not take credible steps to investigate, prosecute and punish officials who committed human rights abuses, including inflammatory racial rhetoric against Afrikaners and other racial minorities, or violence against racial minorities.' This year, the administration admitted as refugees some groups of white Afrikaners. Accusations of European allies restricting right-wing speech The reports take issue with what the Trump administration believes are restrictions on free speech imposed against generally right-wing voices in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The reports use identical language to say that human rights conditions in each of the three NATO allies 'worsened during the year.' The executive summaries for each of the three reports say 'significant human rights issues included credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression, including enforcement of or threat of criminal or civil laws in order to limit expression; and crimes, violence, or threats of violence motivated by antisemitism.' These governments have rejected such assertions that have been made by senior U.S. officials, including Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Targeting Brazil over allegations of restricting Bolsonaro's speech Similar freedom-of-speech issues were raised in Brazil, which has more recently provoked Trump's ire by prosecuting his ally — former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro — and led to the imposition of massive U.S. tariffs and sanctions against Brazil's Supreme Court chief justice. 'The human rights situation in Brazil declined during the year,' the report said. 'The courts took broad and disproportionate action to undermine freedom of speech and internet freedom by blocking millions of users' access to information on a major social media platform in response to a case of harassment.' It added that the government 'undermined democratic debate by restricting access to online content deemed to undermine democracy' and specifically mentioned suppressing the speech of Bolsonaro and his supporters.
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Europe's heat waves intensify
An opinion essay in Le Figaro, a conservative newspaper, defended air conditioning because 'making our fellow citizens sweat limits learning, reduces working hours, and clogs up hospitals.' Libération, a left-wing daily, countered such arguments, writing that the technology was 'an environmental aberration that must be overcome' because it blows hot air onto streets and guzzles up precious energy. Advertisement 'Is air conditioning a far-right thing?' One talk show asked provocatively, reflecting how divisive the issue had become. While France's heated discussion of air conditioning cooled along with the temperatures in the weeks that followed, increasingly hot summers in Europe mean that the issue is not going anywhere. Decades ago, bickering over air conditioning might have seemed strange in Europe, where there was historically little need for it and where keeping homes warm is still a top concern. But times are changing fast. An analysis of daily temperature data from Copernicus, part of the European Union's space program, shows that much of Europe is now experiencing longer periods of severe heat than it was just 40 years ago. So while many derided air conditioning for years as an unnecessary — and American — amenity, it is now increasingly seen as a necessity to survive scorching summers. Advertisement Despite rising temperatures, only about half of homes in Italy today have air conditioning, according to Italy's national statistics institute. In Spain, real estate data indicates the share is roughly 40 percent. And in France, only an estimated 20 to 25 percent of households are equipped with air conditioning, according to the country's Agency for Ecological Transition. In 2023, 62.5 percent of energy consumed by households in the European Union was used to heat homes, versus less than one percent to cool them, according to EU statistics. Energy costs are also usually higher in Europe than in the United States, where almost 90 percent of homes use some form of air conditioning. The dense architecture of European cities is ill-suited to ungainly air conditioning units, and in places such as Paris, securing the necessary approvals for old or historical apartment buildings can be complex. 'Air conditioning still scares some — many still have in mind countries like the United States, where homes and shops are extremely conditioned,' said Baudouin de la Varende, the co-founder of Ithaque, a French consulting firm that helps households with energy-efficient renovations. But even he said that weatherproofing would help only so much in the coming decades. 'I'm a little saddened that the debate is often boiled down to for or against air conditioning,' he added. 'Most people are in the middle: Air conditioning is a useful tool.' Some of the debate is political posturing. Look beyond the sniping on social media, and there is broad agreement in France that air conditioning is necessary in spaces such as retirement homes, hospitals, and schools. More than 1,800 schools had to close during the worst of last month's heat wave. Few people are clamoring for a cooling unit in every home. Advertisement 'Air conditioning is not black or white,' Agnès Pannier-Runacher, France's environment minister, recently told reporters. 'We need air conditioning to give vulnerable people some respite. But we mustn't do it everywhere.' Much of southern Europe now experiences more than two months each year when daily high temperatures exceed 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Madrid, Spain's capital, has had an average of 63 days above 85 degrees in recent years, up from 29 days per year in the early 1980s. In many places, the heat is not just longer-lasting but also more intense. 40 years ago, temperatures in Madrid rarely climbed above 90 degrees, but in the past five years, a typical summer has included 40 days above 90 degrees. Whether cultural resistance to air conditioning in France will persist in such conditions remains to be seen. Perhaps no one displays that ambivalence better than Christian Meyer, the head of a company near Strasbourg that installs air conditioning units. Despite having a vested interest in promoting air conditioning, he was recently quoted in a local newspaper saying that he wasn't a fan and that he didn't use it himself. For now, as the arguments continue, the government's official heat-related advice takes a middle road, of sorts. Air conditioning is on its list of the options to keep a home cool. But the guidelines warn that it is 'a solution that should be considered only after all other options have been exhausted.' Advertisement This article originally appeared in
