News

After the statements that appeared in the Russian media that at the meeting with authorities of the Kaliningrad region Kazimiera Prunskienė voiced Lithuania’s interest to participate in the construction and exploitation of the nuclear power plant that is planned to be constructed in the region, we would like to point out that K.Prunskienė is not elected politician and does not work in any state institution, therefore, she cannot speak on behalf of the state of Lithuania or its people. Her words do not reflect the official position of Lithuania.

The statement by Kazimiera Prunskienė that the nuclear power plant in the Kaliningrad region “is accepted as fact” in Lithuania is totally at odds with reality, because Lithuania has not received from Russia any information that was many times requested regarding the criteria for selection of the nuclear power plant construction site in the Kaliningrad region, compliance with safety standards when constructing and exploiting this object, usage of the water from the Nemunas River for cooling the plant, thermal pollution of the Nemunas River basin and of the Curonian Lagoon, as well as the size of the sanitary-protective zone of the plant ant its legal status.

Lithuania has many times expressed concern to representatives of Russia, various international organizations and the EU about the non-compliance of the project in the Kaliningrad region with the requirements of international conventions to provide information to a neighbouring country, inform the public and show will to cooperate.

The highest leaders of Lithuania, such as President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė and Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius have emphasized that Lithuania was not going to participate in the construction of the nuclear power plant in the Kaliningrad region.

If K.Prunskienė really wanted to represent the people of Lithuania, but not the interests of several construction companies, she should primarily aim at ensuring the transparency of Russia’s nuclear power plant project in Kaliningrad and its full conformity with international nuclear safety, radiation safety and environmental standards and the provision of the requested information to Lithuanian authorities and society.

At the end of the last year a sociological survey was carried out, which showed that 84.5 per cent of Lithuania’s population were concerned about the safety of the nuclear power plants that are planned to be constructed in neighbouring countries.