DISINFO: Russophobic Lithuania plans to tear Belarus away from Russia by dragging it into the Western energy network
SUMMARY
The statement about the ‘nuclear death risk’ for Lithuania posed by the Belarusian nuclear power plant, made by Lithuanian politician Vytautas Landsbergis, is designed to create a negative image of the Russian nuclear energy sector. It also intends to hurt Belarusian-Russian energy cooperation. Lithuania expects to tear Belarus away from Russia and integrate it into the Western electricity network. Such anti-Russian statements are very characteristic of Lithuanian politics as its state policies make Lithuania one of the most Russophobic countries.
RESPONSE
This message is a conspiracy consistent with recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the Western attempts to disrupt Belarusian-Russian relations by any means and Russophobia in the Baltic states. Lithuania opposes 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 the 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. In February 2019 the Meeting of the Parties of the Espoo Convention adopted the decision, which acknowledged that Belarus had failed to comply with some Convention provisions regarding site selection and encouraged Belarus and Lithuania to continue bilateral expert consultations. Lithuania has no intentions to integrate Belarus into Western electricity networks. In fact, Lithuania. Latvia and Estonia, together with Poland and the European Commission has launched the project to synchronize Baltic States' electricity grid with continental Europe, to de-synchronize from Russian and Belarusian system and increase EU energy security. See earlier disinformation cases claiming that Latvia wants to disrupt Belarusian-Russian relations with its plans to buy electricity at the Russian border and that Poland had similar intentions by not inviting Putin to the WWII commemoration ceremony. See a collection of disinformation cases concerning the construction of the Belarusian NPP here.