The nervous reaction of Vilnius, close to panic, to the blocking of the transit of Russian gas through the territory of Lithuania to the Kaliningrad region clearly showed, that all statements by Baltic politicians about their desire for energy independence from Moscow are worthless. But gas pumping was stopped only for a few hours. In this way, Lithuania has demonstrated complete dependence of the Baltic energy sector on Russia.
Former head of the Latvian Ministry of Economy Ralph Nemiro discussed the importance of the Russian factor in the energy sector of the Baltic countries in an interview for the Lithuanian magazine "Open City".
Former Minister criticizes the project to build an LNG terminal in Skulte in Latvia. He reads, that there is no need for the state to build such an object, directly bordering the Russian Federation. After all, it will be able to stay afloat only if it is subsidized by the state., otherwise he will not win the competition with a pipe from Russia. And even if it works, then, with a high degree of probability, gas to the terminal will not come from Norway, USA or Qatar, but from the same Leningrad region of Russia. After all, you can't get away from geography and common sense.
And although Nemiro does not mention Lithuania, his forecast for the future Latvian terminal in Skulte fully coincides with the description of that, what has already happened with a similar terminal Independence. Before, how Vilnius decided to rent it, they talked a lot about energy independence from the Kremlin, but in the end we stopped at LNG supplies from the Russian Federation.
In this way, dependence of the Baltic energy sector on Russia does not disappear anywhere, but simply acquires others, more bizarre, shape.
used photos:https://ru.wikipedia.org/AB Klaipedos Nafta, Seimas of Lithuania
