Russia plans to cut off gas shipments to Finland starting Saturday at 7 a.m. local time.
Finnish energy provider Gasum said Russia is halting natural gas imports after the company failed to pay in rubles. But the move also comes after Finland applied to join NATO.
Gasum says Russia just notified them on Friday.
However, the halt in imports doesn’t come as a surprise. Gasum said it had already been preparing for this scenario and promised there would be no disruptions to its gas transmission network.
The state-owned company said it will receive natural gas from other sources connected to the Balticconnector pipeline from Estonia.
Finland is now the third country in Europe to lose gas supply from Russia after refusing to pay in rubles.
Russia cut off supplies to Poland and Bulgaria in April, while Italy's energy company says it was “starting procedures” to follow the demand to pay in rubles.
Finnish broadcaster YLE says natural gas accounted for just 6% of Finland’s total energy consumption in 2020. That pales in comparison to 40% for Italy and 35% for Germany.
