It was expected. Russia has decided to suspend electricity deliveries to Finland from this Saturday. A decision which is made against a backdrop of rising tensions between these two countries since Finland will soon announce its candidacy to join the Atlantic Alliance.
Electricity exports from Russia to Finland ceased overnight from Friday to Saturday after an announcement to that effect by a Russian supplier, an official from the Finnish electricity grid operator told AFP. The company responsible for Russian electricity sales to Finland, RAO Nordic, announced on Friday its intention to stop deliveries at midnight, citing unpaid bills, as Finland prepares to announce its candidacy for NATO.
The network at equilibrium
Exports from Russia to Finland “are currently at zero, and this has been the case since midnight (21:00 GMT) as announced,” Timo Kaukonen, an operations manager for Fingrid, the operator of the network, told AFP. Finnish network.
The network is in balance thanks to imports from Sweden, according to the real-time map of Fingrid, which said on Friday that it could do without Russian electricity “without difficulty”. Finland has so far imported around 10% of its total electricity consumption from its large Russian neighbour.
RAO Nordic, a Helsinki-based subsidiary of Russian utility InterRAO, justified the shutdown on Friday, saying it had not received payment for electricity supplied to Finland since May 6. The company did not say whether these settlement issues were related to European sanctions targeting the Russian economy after the invasion of Ukraine.
This announcement comes against a backdrop of rising tensions between Moscow and Helsinki, which has announced its desire to join NATO “without delay” under the influence of the Russian offensive in Ukraine. The announcement of the Finnish candidacy is expected on Sunday, during a press conference by President Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Sanna Marin.