MOSCOW (awp/afp) – Russia on Saturday stopped supplying natural gas to neighboring Finland, which refused to pay the supplier Gazprom in rubles and provoked its anger by asking to join NATO.
Having failed to receive payment in rubles from Finland’s state-owned energy company Gasum by the May 20 deadline, Gazprom has “completely halted its gas deliveries”, the Russian energy giant said in a statement.
After the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine on February 24 and the imposition of Western sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 31 demanded that buyers of Russian gas from “unfriendly” countries pay in rubles from accounts in Russia on pain of being deprived of supplies.
The list of “unfriendly countries”, published in early March, includes the United States, members of the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Taiwan, South Korea, Norway, etc. and Australia.
EU states are the main consumers of Russian gas.
“As of April 1, payments for gas must be made in rubles using new bank details, which partners were informed of in due time,” Gazprom said.
At the end of April, the Russian giant had already suspended its gas deliveries to Bulgaria and Poland, explaining that these two EU countries had not made any payment in rubles. The European Union had described this measure as “blackmail”.
“No Cut”
Gazprom says it supplied 1.49 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Finland in 2021, or two-thirds of the Nordic country’s consumption.
However, natural gas represents only 8% of the energy consumed in Finland.
The Finnish company Gasum explained that it would fill the gap from other sources through the Balticconnector gas pipeline, which connects Finland to Estonia.
“It is very regrettable that the contractual delivery of natural gas has been suspended. We have, however, taken great care to prepare for this situation,” Gasum chief executive Mika Wiljanen said in a statement released Friday evening announcing the impending Russian measure. .
“There will be no cuts in the gas distribution network,” he assured.
Gasum, who rejects the demand for payment in rubles, announced on Tuesday that he was seeking legal arbitration.
Gazprom Export said it was ready to defend its interests before the courts by all “available means”.
Asked by the press on Friday, the spokesman for the Russian presidency Dmitry Peskov judged “obvious that no one is going to deliver anything for free”.
Finland has already unveiled plans 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.
“Serious error”
Last week, Russia had already suspended electricity deliveries to Finland after its energy company RAO Nordic claimed arrears from Helsinki.
Asked by AFP, the operator of the Finnish electricity network Fingrid had assured that it could do without Russian electricity, which represents around 10% of the electricity consumed in the country.
Finland, which shares some 1,300 km of borders with Russia, and neighboring Sweden submitted an application to join NATO on Wednesday, while for decades, especially during the entire Cold War, the two countries had made the choice of non-alignment.
This reversal is the result of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, Moscow being perceived as a threat.
Russia said it launched its assault on Ukraine both to prevent an alleged genocide of Russian-speaking populations there and the expansion of NATO, which Moscow considers an existential threat.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the Swedish and Finnish candidacies were “a serious mistake” whose “consequences will have far-reaching consequences”.
In response, Moscow has already announced that it will create twelve new military bases in the west of the country.
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