It is the first country to do so. Lithuania's decision was followed by Estonia and Latvia. Now Europe must decide whether to impose new sanctions.
After forty days of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, Lithuania has decided it will no longer import Russian gas to meet its domestic needs. It is the first country in Europe to have declared independence from Russian supplies.
The announcement comes from energy minister Dainius Kreivys after Vladimir Putin decreed by executive order that his gas must be paid for in roubles and no longer in international currency, that is, in euros or dollars.
Lithuania's decision was immediately followed by Estonia and Latvia: in other words, on the eastern borders of the European Union, there are countries that, without waiting for guidance from Brussels, have already decided to sever every energy tie with Russia.
Lithuania imports liquefied natural gas (LNG) through the port of Klaipeda, whose name translates as "independence": the terminal was inaugurated in 2014, following the invasion of Crimea, to put an end to the monopoly on gas supply held by Russian pipelines. Lithuania's then president Dalia Grybauskaite described Russia's energy stranglehold as "a threat" to her country.
After the terminal was built, the Russian company Gazprom began offering gas to Vilnius at lower prices (until then, Lithuania had paid considerably more for gas than other countries). But with the inauguration of the port, Lithuania's main suppliers became the United States and Norway.
Lithuania has not yet put an end to the transit of gas destined for the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. However, the Baltic country has demonstrated that all the gas entering from Belarus is exported entirely to Kaliningrad.
"We have cut every energy tie with the aggressor," Lithuanian president Gitanas Nauseda said in a tweet. "If we can do it, so can the rest of Europe." But what does the rest of Europe have to say about cutting off the supply of Russian gas?
In the wake of the horrific images relating to the Bucha massacre, where a growing number of sources maintain that hundreds of civilians were killed by the Russian army, pressure is mounting around the European Union to adopt a fifth package of sanctions: on the table are embargoes on gas, oil and coal, as well as the closure of ports to Russian ships and goods.
Meanwhile in Italy, Pd secretary Enrico Letta is urging the government and the EU to overcome the last remaining resistance: "How many Buchas before moving towards a full embargo on Russian oil and gas? Time has run out." The war in Ukraine, sadly, has not.
