Shortly after, the Russian giant Gazprom confirmed the interruption of supply to the country with which it shares 1,300 kilometers of border, indicating that it had “completely stopped gas deliveries (…) at the end of the day on May 20” because Gasum had not made his payments in rubles.
In April and in response to the sanctions imposed by the West to the invasion, the Kremlin forced gas deliveries to be paid for in rubles and not eurosbut Gasum rejected the request and this week requested an arbitration procedure before the court.
Although gas only represents 8% of Finland’s energy matrixpractically all that is used in the Nordic country comes from Russiareported the AFP news agency.
However, Gasum stated that it would guarantee the supply of gas through other sources and that the service stations of the gas supply networks would continue to operate. Finland announced plans to substitute Russian gas next winter, such as leasing a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification unit with Estonia for ten years.
“This LNG terminal will allow us to get rid of Russian gas,” said Finance Minister Annika Saarikko, according to Finnish radio and television YL.
Finland is the third country in the European Union (EU), after Poland and Bulgaria, to stop receiving Russian gas for not accepting Moscow’s demands that its customers pay in rubles to try to stop the collapse of its currency in the face of sanctions. the western powers.
On the contrary, the Italian oil company announced this week the imminent opening of an account in euros and another in rubles in the Russian bank Gazprombank to pay for the supply of Russian gas as decreed by the Kremlin.
For its part, the Finnish government associated the cut in supply with the decision to apply together with Sweden to join NATO, despite Russia’s resistance, which announced that it would take political, economic and military reprisals.
A week ago, the Kremlin had also suspended electricity supplies to Finland.
Finnish power grid operator RAO Nordic, a subsidiary of Helsinki-based Russian state group InterRAO, reported on May 14 that the company was forced to “suspend electricity imports.”
“RAO Nordic lacks the ability to make payments for electricity imported from Russia,” the company said as an explanation, calling the situation “exceptional, unprecedented in our 20-year business history.”
Source: Ambito
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