Poland and Baltic nations to Decouple Power Grids From Russia, And Link to EU Instead by 2025

The leaders of the Baltic states and Poland will sign a long-awaited deal on Thursday to connect their power grids to the European Union grid by 2025 and break their energy relationship with Russia, a Soviet legacy.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, once ruled by Moscow, view being plugged into Russia's power network as a threat to their national security.

"We worked nine years for the agreement," President Dalia Grybauskaite told Lithuanian LRT television on Thursday.

"This is the last millstone tied to our feet, keeping us from real energy independence," she said. "That tool of blackmail, which was used (by Russia) to buy our politicians and meddle in our politics, will no longer exist."

Some thoughts:

- First of all, there may not even be an E.U. post 2025, so that would simply mean Poland and the Baltic states are cementing their ties to historical Europe and the West overall, which includes the USA.

- Second of all, it is EU's leader GERMANY that's trying to FORCE other countries to accept the gargantuan 'Nordstream 2' EU-Russia pipeline.

GERMANY's former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder now helms Rosneft, which along with Gazprom are Russia's two biggest state-oil companies. The German Chancellor made it known that among his main aims is to rid Europe of American energy dominance. A goal shared by current Chancellor Angela Merkel. Austria also plans to solidify its energy ties to Russia into 2040.

- On the issue of *Sovereignty*. Russia has threatened sanctions on Poland for tearing down Leninist and Soviet monuments. The Kremlin has hacked Estonian cyber-systems in retaliation for Estonia's new language laws which require all aspiring citizens to pass an Estonian language test. This includes ethnic Russians who were sent en-masse by USSR as a way to subjugate the Estonian population and eradicate their culture. (Currently, ethnic-Russians remaining in the Baltics have a reputation for being loyal to the Kremlin, but staying to reap off the freedoms and economic benefits of living in the EU.)

- On the issue of *Islam*: Russia takes in more Muslim migrants than anywhere in the E.U. and Moscow is second only to Paris in sheer size and concentration of Muslims and mosques of any European city. Migrants from Central Asia and former Soviet territories like Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, are invited by the Kremlin VISA-free in order to address the labor shortfall presented by Russia's demographic crisis.

Semi-autnomous Islamic republics operate within Russia, at Putin's behest. Chechnya being the most radical, followed by Dagestan, and the most moderate being Tatarstan. All helmed by Muslim, Kremlin cronies and funded with Russian oil money. Even at the expense of other parts of Russia.

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