Europe’s Baltic nations have cut themselves off from the Russian electricity grid for the first time in history, ending a precarious, decades-long energy partnership with Moscow.
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia will connect to the EU’s power system on Sunday, roughly 20 years after joining the bloc and cementing a westward trajectory. The Soviet-designed network will still cover Russia and Belarus.
The move occurred under a flurry of disinformation that local leaders say was intended to sow fear about the consequences.
In the days before the disconnection, leaflets printed in Russian appeared in apartment buildings across the region, warning that “there will be no electricity” and urging residents to buy candles. In reality, the Baltic countries have not bought power from Russia or Belarus in recent years, meaning no outages or price rises are expected.
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