The head of Latvian storage company Conexus Baltic Grid said Saturday that the Baltic states have stopped importing Russian natural gas that “has not been supplied to Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania since April 1,”.
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“Years ago, my country made decisions that today allow us to easily sever energy ties with the aggressor,” Oldis Parris, CEO of Conexus Baltic Grid, told Latvian radio.
He said, “If we can do it, the rest of Europe can do it too!” The Baltic states are now served by the underground gas reserves of Latvia.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nosida, on Twitter, also called on the rest of the European Union to follow the example of the Baltic states: “From this month there is no more Russian gas in Lithuania.”
According to Eurostat, in 2020 Russia accounted for 93% of Estonian natural gas imports, 100% of Latvian imports and 41.8% of Lithuanian imports.
The United States banned the import of Russian oil and gas after the invasion of Ukraine, but not the European Union, which was importing about 40% of Russia in 2021.
But Moscow’s announcement on Thursday that buyers from “unfriendly” countries will be forced to pay for Russian gas in rubles from accounts in Russia could be a game changer.
Germany, which is particularly dependent on Russian gas, said on Friday that it wanted to analyze the concrete consequences of this Kremlin decree, which is aimed above all at bolstering the ruble. Berlin, like other European Union countries, refuses any payment in rubles to Moscow.
