Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania disconnected their electricity systems from Russia’s power grid on Saturday in a bid to seek closer ties with the EU and boost national security. Officials have shut down the Soviet-era grid's transmission and, pending last-minute tests, plan to synchronize it with the EU’s grids on Sunday. In the meantime, it will operate independently. Immediately after disconnecting from the grid, Latvian workers used a crane to reach the high-voltage wires in Vilaka and cut them. They kept the wires as keepsakes and handed them out to observers....

VILNIUS, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said on Sunday they had successfully synchronised their electricity systems to the European continental power grid, one day after severing decades-old energy ties to Russia and Belarus. Planned for many years, the complex switch away from the grid of their former Soviet imperial overlord is designed to integrate the three Baltic nations more closely with the European Union and to boost the region's energy security. "We did it!," Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said in a post on social media X. After...

The Baltic states yesterday began cutting ties with Russia’s power grid to integrate with Europe’s system, a years-long process that gained urgency with Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — all former Soviet republics now in the EU and NATO — are leaving Russia’s grid to prevent Moscow from weaponizing it against them. “We are now removing Russia’s ability to use the electricity system as a tool of geopolitical blackmail,” Lithuanian Minister of Energy Zygimantas Vaiciunas said. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas...

STORY: :: Latvia cuts ties with Russia's power grid as the Baltics move to link with the EU's electricity network "It's a historical moment. First of all, it's, I would say, from one side it's finished, the work, but I would say more looking at this just beginning, that we're going to a new system of Europe, it's a new start, it's a new beginning of a new system of working, that's more independent, more secure, and what's most important is the system is fully in our hands, our responsibility."...

The three Baltic States disconnected their electricity systems from Russia’s power grid on Saturday, the region’s operators said, part of a plan designed to integrate the countries more closely with the European Union and boost security. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania disconnected from the IPS/UPS joint network and, subject to last-minute tests, they will synchronise with the EU’s grid at 12pm Irish time on Sunday after operating on their own in the meantime. “We’ve reached the goal we for strived for, for so long. We are now in control,” Lithuanian minister...