Baltic states disconnect from Soviet-era grid to merge with European system

(Mindaugas Kulbis/AP)

The flow of electricity between the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and Russia has been officially severed after officials switched off the Soviet-era grid’s transmission lines and prepared to join the rest of Europe.

This came more than three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, ending the Baltics’ final ties to oil and gas-rich Russia.