Baltic States – CIS, Belarus, Energy, Energy Market, Latvia, Nuclear power plant

The prime minister said that in such an event Latvia might start electricity trade with third countries, using Latvia-Russia interconnection.

For the time being it is not clear how electricity trade with third countries might be arranged, but Karins said that the Economics Ministry will tackle the issue in collaboration with colleagues in Estonia, Lithuania and the European Commission, to work out a concrete method. 

Asked why the government took the decision now, Karins said that the issue had been debated already earlier, primarily from the nuclear safety standpoint. "Given the developments in Belarus, concerns about nuclear safety are only growing," the prime minister said. 

As reported, Belarus has loading fuel into its Astravyet's nuclear power plant's first reactor, the Department of Nuclear and Radiation Safety of Belarus' Ministry of Emergency Situations (Gosatomnadzor) informed earlier.

The Lithuanian government says the Astravyets plant, located some 50 kilometers from Vilnius and less than 30 kilometers from the countries' shared border, fails to meet international safety and environmental standards, an allegation that Minsk denies. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has said that the Astravyets NPP should be unacceptable to the European Union and the import of the electricity generated at Astravyets could be interpreted as support to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko authoritarian regime.