Baltic States – CIS, Energy, Energy Market, Lithuania, Russia

In his words, "it's a completely local issue" which has nothing to do with the planned synchronization of the Baltic states' power systems with that of continental Europe.

"We heard previously, in around 2010, that there were power supply reliability problems in the Curonian Spit and that they were going to bolster their power distribution network. Since that power distribution line delivers low volumes of power, so it's a completely local issue on how to bolster the part of the Curonian Spit in the Kaliningrad region," Virbickas told.

"The issue is related to bolstering the distribution network in the Kaliningrad region, so that we could consider the low-tension line with Lithuania to be a reserve one," he said.

Virbickas says the Russian part of the Curonian Spit's disconnection from Lithuania should not be linked to the Baltic synchronization with the European network.

"It cannot be directly linked to the synchronization plan as they are speaking about power mains and distribution network lines. They would have done that with or without the synchronization as there've been power supply reliability problems on the Russian side," Virbickas said.

It was reported earlier in the day that Yantarenergo is supplying power to the whole Russian part of the Curonian Spit since November, and the link with the substation with Nida will be a reserve one. According to the Russian company, it's a historic event as up until now power to all residents of the Curonian Spit has been supplied from Lithuania.