Finland’s natural gas supply from Russia was cut off on Saturday, Finland’s state-owned energy company Gasum said, after the Nordic country refused to pay supplier Gazprom in roubles.
• Read also: Finland: suspension of Russian gas deliveries from Saturday
“Natural gas deliveries to Finland under Gasum’s supply contract have been interrupted,” the company said in a statement, adding that gas would now be supplied from other sources via the Balticconnector pipeline, which connects Finland to Estonia.
The Finnish group said on Friday that it had been informed by the Russian giant Gazprom of the interruption of deliveries on Saturday.
In April, Gazprom demanded that all future payments for its gas export deliveries be settled in rubles rather than euros, but Gasum rejected this demand and the group announced on Tuesday that it was seeking legal arbitration. .
If gas represents only 8% of the energy consumed in Finland, that used by the Nordic country comes mainly from Russia.
Gasum, however, assured that it would be able to obtain gas from other suppliers and that it would continue its activities “normally”.
Finland had already unveiled plans on Friday to do without Russian gas next winter, notably announcing the ten-year lease, jointly with neighboring Estonia, of a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification terminal.
Several countries that refused to pay in rubles so as not to support the Russian economy during the war in Ukraine, such as Poland and Bulgaria, have already had their gas cut off by Gazprom.
The announcement comes a few days after the suspension of Russian electricity exports to Finland, due to payment problems.
Finland, and its neighbor Sweden, decided to join NATO because of the Russian offensive against Ukraine, judging that Moscow was a threat when for decades, especially during the entire Cold War, the two countries had chooses non-alignment.
Finland in particular shares some 1,300 km of borders with Russia.
Moscow has already warned Helsinki that a formal candidacy for NATO membership would be “a serious mistake whose consequences will have far-reaching consequences”.
Russia had in particular justified its attack in Ukraine by the rapprochement of its western neighbor with NATO, believing that this posed an “existential” threat to its security.