Lithuanian President: Construction of nuclear plant near Lithuanian border is the Russian geopolitical project against Lithuania
The Belarusian NPP (BAES) which is being constructed near the Lithuanian border is a geopolitical project of Russia directed against Lithuania, said Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, as reported by Delfi media source.
“I consider this project, BAES, a Russian geopolitical project, malevolently directed against Lithuania. This is an opportunity to blackmail and put pressure on Lithuania, to impede its integration with the West,” Grybauskaite stated.
According to her, Lithuania needs to use all means to halt the BAES project and demand safety and transparency.
The Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant is a project to construct a NPP 18 km from the city of Astravyets (in the Grodno Region) in Belarus. According to the plan, the first module of the NPP will be be operational in 2018, the second in 2020.
Belarus’s main partner in the construction of the NPP is the Russian company Atomstroyexport.
In May 2016, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry summoned the Belarusian Ambassador and handed him a memorandum concerning a possible incident at BAES.
At the end of July, Lithuania sent Belarus a memorandum on account of the failure of the reactor at the NPP.
The Lithuanian authorities took such steps two days after the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Belarus acknowledged that during the transportation of the reactor, an “emergency situation” took place.