Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Poland's Deputy Prime Minister, has accused Germany and France of having close ties to Russia.

"For years, the German government refused to acknowledge what Russia is doing under Putin, and now we see the result," he was quoted as saying in an interview with the German newspaper Welt.

Berlin, he asserts, is attempting to "revive what Imperial Chancellor Bismarck accomplished," namely "German dominance alongside Russia."

Kaczynski, the leader of Poland's ruling party, has accused Germany of failing to provide Ukraine with sufficient weapons and refusing to impose an embargo on at least Russian oil imports. He claims that Russia earns five times as much money from oil exports as it does from natural gas sales.

Three European countries have already announced their intention to halt Russian gas imports.

After Latvia announced yesterday that it would suspend imports of Russian gas for domestic consumption, becoming Europe's first country to achieve self-sufficiency from Russian supplies, AFP reported last night that the other two Baltic republics - Lithuania and Estonia - had also ceased purchasing and using Russian gas. Uldis Bariss, executive director of the Baltic gas transmission company Conexus Baltic Grid, said the three Baltic states would phase out Russian gas on April 1.

"As of this month, Lithuania has no Russian gas. We cut ties with the aggressor's energy. If we can do it, so can the rest of Europe," Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda wrote earlier on Twitter. If we can do it, the rest of Europe can."