(6 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pagiriai, Vilnius district, Lithuania – 30 January 2025
1. Various of high-voltage power line connecting Belarus and Lithuania and a worker near it
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Gitanas Nausėda, President of Lithuania:
“First of all, this is physical disconnection from the Soviet-type BRELL system. And in my eyes or my opinion, this is the last remaining element of our reliance or dependence on the Russian energy system or Belarusian energy system. Also this is a good opportunity to take responsibility to regulate the main parameters of our electricity system, to regulate the frequency, to regulate the voltage, and also to integrate into the continental European system, which would allow us to be more flexible in setting the prices for electricity looking ahead. So this is one of the last, but not least, elements of strengthening of our energy independence. And Lithuania did a lot in last 30 years to disconnect, to become independent, and to announce, by the way, in 2022, in April of 2022, that we cut all the energy ties with Russia. We stopped to buy any kind of energy resources from Russia. It was our response to the war in Ukraine, which broke out in February 2022.”
3. Various of electronic display with a clock counting down the time until disconnection from the BRELL network
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Indre (no last name given):
“I think it’s too late [to disconnect from the network], but maybe it’s better to be late, but finally, we did it. And from the reaction of Russia, I can say that this is very important turn in our history. This is a very painful, I believe, thing to Russia. I think they lost a final means with which they could control us.”
5. Close of electronic display with a clock
6. SOUNDBITE (Lithuanian) Vaida (no last name given):
“I think it’s good (to disconnect from the BRELL network). We probably don’t need an additional dependency, because the BRELL network basically covers only the Baltic countries, Russia and Belarus. Given the geopolitical situation, it seems like there are a lot of benefits for us.”
7. View of the business part of Vilnius with the countdown clock.
8. SOUNDBITE (Lithuanian) Žilvinas (no last name given):
“Let it (the electricity) become more expensive, but independent. Of course, maybe it will become more expensive at first, then it will equalize. But that (the disconnection from the BRELL) should have been done a long time ago.”
9. Lithuanian Energy and Technology Museum next to countdown clock
10. SOUNDBITE (Lithuanian) Mažvydas (no last name given):
“No, I don’t care (about disconnection from the BRELL). I don’t care, I’m an artist. I eat bread from my own creation. Everything is great for me.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pagiriai, Vilnius district, Lithuania – 30 January 2025
11. Various of high-voltage power line.
12. Pan right from trucks driving past to power lines
AP video by Siarhei Satsiuk
STORYLINE:
Nearly three and a half decades after leaving the Soviet Union, the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania this weekend will flip a switch to end electricity-grid connections to neighbouring Russia and Belarus — and lean in more with their European Union allies.
The severing of electricity ties to oil- and gas-rich Russia is steeped in geopolitical and symbolic significance.
Work toward it sped up after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine three years ago, battering Moscow’s EU relations.
Then, for 24 hours, the Baltic Power System will operate solo in a so-called “island operation mode.”
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