Belarus, Energy, Energy Market, Latvia, Lithuania

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda warned that these differences in positions might hinder the Baltic power grids' desynchronization from the post-Soviet system and synchronization with the Western European system.

"The Astravyets NPP issue is really painful, and we treat different positions on this issue as a certain obstacle to implementing the synchronization project," he said at a joint news conference with his Latvian counterpart, Egils Levits, in Vilnius. 

Nauseda said Lithuania will take all possible measures to bar market access for electricity from the Astravyets plant.  

"If the positions differed, it would probably be even more difficult to do that technically, but nevertheless, we are ready to do that," he said. 

Lithuanian officials say that the Astravyets plant's electricity might enter the Baltic market via Latvia which has rejected Vilnius' requests to block it.