A Russian Power Play in Belarus

Since breaking away from the Soviet Union in 1990, Lithuania has done its best to draw closer to Western Europe, joining NATO and the European Union, and adopting the bloc’s common currency. But less than 30 miles from the capital, Vilnius, looms a symbol of everything Lithuanians thought they’d left behind: the hulking concrete towers of a nuclear power plant being built with Russian money and expertise.

The power station going up across the border in Astravets, Belarus, is creating a sense of déjà vu among Lithuanians, who fear not only a Chernobyl-type disaster from a largely untested nuclear technology, but also a resurgence of Russian influence in the region. Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite has called the plant a “nuclear monstrosity” and an “existential threat to European security.”