Cost of electricity in Russia: $0.05 Cost of electricity in Estonia: $0.26 Painful.
Europeans voted for electricity that expensive, so not sure what the concern is. The government in Germany which shut down local production and decided to outsource it all did not come out of thin air.
Estonia to disconnect from the Russian-run electricity network on Saturday
41–50 of 81 posts
Re: Estonia to disconnect from the Russian-run electricity network on Saturday
#42Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (in that order) will disconnect from grids in Königsberg (Kaliningrad), Belarus and Russia (in this order). After that the area will be working as isolated grid for 33h, after which the grids will be connected to synchronization link between Lithuania and Poland. Königsberg will remain a grid-island. Summary of timeline on page 18 (in Estonian): https://elering.ee/sites/default/files/pub…
Out of curiosity, why are you using the old name of Kaliningrad? I thought it was different only in Polish language.
Re: Estonia to disconnect from the Russian-run electricity network on Saturday
#43Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (in that order) will disconnect from grids in Königsberg (Kaliningrad), Belarus and Russia (in this order). After that the area will be working as isolated grid for 33h, after which the grids will be connected to synchronization link between Lithuania and Poland. Königsberg will remain a grid-island. Summary of timeline on page 18 (in Estonian): https://elering.ee/sites/default/files/pub…
Out of curiosity, why are you using the old name of Kaliningrad? I thought it was different only in Polish language.
Re: Estonia to disconnect from the Russian-run electricity network on Saturday
#44Cost of electricity in Russia: $0.05 Cost of electricity in Estonia: $0.26 Painful.
Re: Estonia to disconnect from the Russian-run electricity network on Saturday
#451. It clearly strengthened NATO, with Finland and Sweden joining and member nations increasing military spending;
2. It revealed Russia's military as a paper tiger and exposed the rampant corruption;
3. It became apparent that neither Ukraine nor Russia could "win" militarily (whatever that means) after 1-2 years;
4. Barring serious escalation, it's now a war of attrition. Ukraine is running out of people to conscript. But Russia is hurting too. Bringing in North Korean troops is clearly a measure to avoid or delay another mobilization;
5. Thus far, the Russian economy has withstood sanctions probably better than anyone expected;
6. Russia has done long-term damage to their energy exports regardless of the outcome. Europe won't be keen to return to a dependence on Russian natural gas;
7. The most likely outcome for awhile seems to be that the West will eventually get bored and there'll be a negotiated settlement that'll cede Ukrainina territory to Russia, creating a land bridge to Crimea and guarantee a Russian port in the Black Sea (IMHO);
8. There clearly has been internal strife in Russia. Oligarchs are dying in car crashes an dfalling out of windows at an alarming rate. And this is beyond the one very public and short-lived coup attempt;
9. If Ukraine cedes territory to Russia, I very much suspect Zollensky will have to flee the country and it will go hard right, kinda like Hungary;
10. Less talked about is Asaad falling in Syria but it's significant as this was a port for the Russian navy in the Meditaranean. Russia had been forced to use this for repairs after Ukrainian missile and drone attacks on their Black Sea fleet. That is a serious loss;
11. Many like to paint Trump as a Putin patsy, even an asset. The truth seems to be far more complicated. For example, Trump had been banging the drum about the dangers of Nordstream 1 and 2 and European dependence on Russian natural gas back in 2017-2018. In fact, Germany conceded to pressure by the first Trump administration to build an LNG port because of this threat. Those aren't pro-Russian moves.
12. As much as Trump may want to end the conflict, there will be significant resitance to this because it's hugely profitable to the military-industrial complex. Fun fact: spending in Afghanistan in the last year was pretty much the amount spent on military aid to Ukraine in the firs tyear.
13. Ukraine is and always was too large to occupy so either that was never the goal or Putin didn't listen to his generals. I've seen estimates that you'd need a standing army of 500,000+ to occupy a country the size of Ukraine and it would be a quagmire like 1980s Afghanistan was for the Soviets;
14. So either the goal had to be gaining territory, installing a puppet regime (like Lukashenko previously) and/or it was ideological (the so-called "Duganist" argument).
15. Between China and India there will always be a market for Russian energy exports.
Re: Estonia to disconnect from the Russian-run electricity network on Saturday
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Europeans voted for electricity that expensive, so not sure what the concern is. The government in Germany which shut down local production and decided to outsource it all did not come out of thin air.
> The government in Germany which shut down local production and decided to outsource it all did not come out of thin air. That is just plain wrong. https://www.iea.org/countries/germany/energy-mix
If Germans want cheaper energy their only option is to elect other politicians. It's the same problem in Norway. People vote for politicians who do everything they can to increase the price, and then they whine that inflation is sky high. You get what you vote for in a Democracy.
Re: Estonia to disconnect from the Russian-run electricity network on Saturday
#47Lithuania - which I am from - as well. It's a long awaited step in becoming more independant from russia.
How is it viewed in your country? does this mean big increase in electricity prices?
It is viewed as a positive thing in general. The politicians that were against this development while it was ongoing are silent.
Re: Estonia to disconnect from the Russian-run electricity network on Saturday
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most of us are happy to suffer if it means not relying on Russia. This is the price of independence.
Doesn't it mean you're now dependent on the US (and our particular politics) as well as the middle eastern oil monarchies? Or is the idea to try to source all of the EU energy needs independently?
The grids are being disconnected from russia but that doesn't mean that estonia was dependent on Russia for electricity before that
Looking at this https://oec.world/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/import/est/all/... it seems like even before the 2022 war Estonian imports from russia of electricity were close to zero
The concern with having the grids connected to Russia rather than the EU is that Russia might exploit this in the future (inducing instability on the grid for instance) so switching to the EU removes that risk
As for the US and ME monarchies, this applies more in general to the EU as a whole which depends quite a lot on imports for fossil fuels, but not all dependencies are made equal and at least for now Saudis and Americans haven't been invading countries in our neighborhood so I'd still take them over the Russians
The ideal scenario would be reducing as much as possible that dependency which is why there's a bunch of interest in renewables, energy efficiency and nuclear across the continent
Re: Estonia to disconnect from the Russian-run electricity network on Saturday
#49Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (in that order) will disconnect from grids in Königsberg (Kaliningrad), Belarus and Russia (in this order). After that the area will be working as isolated grid for 33h, after which the grids will be connected to synchronization link between Lithuania and Poland. Königsberg will remain a grid-island. Summary of timeline on page 18 (in Estonian): https://elering.ee/sites/default/files/pub…
Out of curiosity, why are you using the old name of Kaliningrad? I thought it was different only in Polish language.
He may be most know for being the one signing the order for Katyn massacre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre
Re: Estonia to disconnect from the Russian-run electricity network on Saturday
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Trump term 1 was significantly harder on Russia than Biden before the invasion of Ukraine. To suggest that he is pro-Russia is absurd, has always been, will always be. That being said, the war has to end. Pretending like it could go on indefinitely, as Biden and Europe did, is infantile.
> Trump term 1 was significantly harder on Russia than Biden before the invasion of Ukraine. To suggest that he is pro-Russia is absurd, has always been, will always be. How? Trump rather infamously stood up at a press conference and said, in effect, he trusted Putin more than his own intelligence agencies. The only real anti-Russia thing done during his administration that I can recall is the Magnitsky Act, but the…
Words are not policy.
Biden stopped selling weapons to Ukraine and removed sanctions on Nord stream 2.