Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register VILNIUS, April 2 (Reuters) – Lithuania will no longer import Russian gas to meet its domestic needs, becoming the first country in Europe to secure independence from Russian supplies, the country’s energy ministry said on Saturday. . All of Lithuania’s domestic gas will be imported through the liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal at the port of Klaipeda, the ministry said in a statement. “As of this month – no more Russian gas in Lithuania,” Lithuanian President Gitana Nauseda wrote on Twitter on Saturday, saying the country was severing “energy ties with the attacker.” Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register “If we can do it, the rest of Europe can do it,” he added Lithuania has previously announced that it will not allow any Russian LNG imports. Klaipeda’s LNG terminal, called Independence, was launched in 2014 to end Russia’s gas supply monopoly, which then-President Dalia Grybauskaite described as an “existential threat” to the country. However, Lithuania is not ending the transit of Russian gas to the Kaliningrad region. The website of Lithuania’s gas network showed on Saturday afternoon about the same amount of gas entering from Belarus as it was exporting to Kaliningrad. The ministry also noted that the withdrawal from Russian supplies meant that the country was isolated from a recent requirement by Russia to pay for gas in rubles. Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded that foreign buyers pay for Russian gas in Russian currency since Friday, otherwise they face a cut in supplies, a move rejected by European capitals that Germany said amounted to “blackmail.” . read more “Under these circumstances, Russia’s demand to pay for gas in rubles does not make sense, because Lithuania no longer orders gas and does not expect further payments,” the energy ministry said in a statement. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius. Edited by David Holmes Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
