Lithuania becomes first EU country to cut off Russian gas

Source: Money Review

Lithuania became the first European Union country to end its dependence on Russian gas, according to its energy minister.

Lithuanian companies cut off gas flows from Russian pipelines to zero over the weekend, without the need for the government to announce a ban, according to Energy Minister Dainius Kreivys. But he added that the government would impose such a measure if necessary, according to Bloomberg.

Last year, Lithuania imported 26% of its gas directly from Russia, and another 12% came from storage facilities in Latvia. The country, which is considering options to expand an LNG terminal in the Baltic, will now depend on LNG imports from the US and Norway.

"Dear friends in the EU, unplug. "Do not be complicit," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis wrote on Twitter on Sunday, calling on Europe to stop importing Russian gas and oil, which he said funded Russia's war crimes.

Eight years ago, Lithuania was completely dependent on Gazprom for gas.

The government had been advising the country to switch to LNG since December when the first warnings of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine surfaced. Lithuania has long called on other European countries to break free from Russian gas.