DISINFO: Lithuania relies on "new Chernobyl" to replenish its state budget
SUMMARY
Lithuania relies on “new Chernobyl” to replenish its budget.
The authorities of the Baltic Republic do not even hide the fact that they are trying to gain political influence on Minsk by betting on a catastrophe comparable to the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Lithuania.
Lithuania opposed the construction of the Astravets Nuclear power Plant (NPP) as the project does not comply with the international standards of environmental protection and nuclear safety, and is built on a site that was not duly justified over the alternative ones.
On 7 June 2011, Lithuania lodged a complaint with the Implementing Committee of the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment (the Espoo Convention) on the Astravets nuclear power plant case. The February 2019 draft decision of the Meeting of the Parties of the Espoo Convention acknowledged that Belarus had failed to comply with some Convention provisions and encouraged Belarus and Lithuania to continue bilateral expert consultations. On 5 May 2020, the Lithuanian parliament passed a resolution tasking the government to take even more active steps to ensure that electricity generated by Astravets NPP has no access to the Lithuanian market.
The Astravets nuclear power plant was connected with the grid in early November 2020 in Belarus. On the November 11, 2020 Lithuania handed a diplomatic note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus over the official information about the incident that had occurred during the commissioning of the Belarusian nuclear power plant.
Earlier pro-Kremlin outlets published many other speculations alleging that Lithuania fights against the Belarusian NPP on the orders of Sweden and Finland or because it has been offended by the EU, that Lithuania's counteractions to the NPP are an attempt to disrupt Belarus-Russia cooperation, and that Lithuanian authorities criticise the Belarusian NPP to divert public attention from the catastrophic state of economy.
See more the 130 other disinformation cases on nuclear issues and Chernobyl.