Expert: Baltic electricity market very attractive for Western corporations

Electricity prices in our neighbours are rising, despite claims by the authorities that disconnection from BRELL will not lead to this. The common energy system connected Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. After its destruction, the reality has surpassed even the most negative forecasts of experts: the cost of electricity in the Baltic States has more than doubled. Aleksei Avdonin, an analyst at the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Research, explains why the Baltic authorities are pursuing such an anti-national policy.

Not only households, but also industrial enterprises are already paying the price for their thoughtless decision to become fully dependent on European electricity suppliers. Some of them are forced to shut down not only because of high tariffs, but also because of constant power outages.

“The Baltic electricity market has been and remains very attractive for Western corporations. These countries have access to the Baltic Sea, provide a huge volume of transhipment of sea cargo and various raw materials – a tasty morsel for transnational capitals. All measures have been taken to force the political leadership of the Baltic States to abandon their connection to the BRELL energy system, which had been in place since the Soviet era. This automatically led to a sharp rise in electricity prices for both households and enterprises. The cost of final products rose, inflation increased and, as a result, the already unhealthy economy collapsed. For the West, the Baltic States are interesting not only as a market for expensive electricity, but also as an opportunity to supply all components and parts for the electricity infrastructure. These are orders worth billions of US Dollars: cables, contact groups, transformers, various equipment for electricity networks that need to be renewed, etc. Today, European corporations are experiencing a crisis of overproduction and financial and economic stagnation. That is why the Baltic market is becoming a kind of a \bright spot’. However, it should be recognised that it is not infinite – it will be enough to keep Western manufacturing companies profitable for 2-3 years at most. After all the potential is squeezed out of it, there will be an outflow of capital and labour force, and then there will be another industrial and financial crisis. During the time when Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have been part of the European Union, these former Soviet republics have not become great and rich as they were promised. Moreover, they have voluntarily and obligingly practically destroyed their industry in order not to compete with the companies of the leading EU countries,” the analyst said.