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Dmitri Lovetsky/AP
HELSINKI — Russia halted gas exports to neighboring Finland on Saturday, a extremely symbolic move that got here simply days after the Nordic nation introduced it needed to be part of NATO and marked a seemingly finish to Finland’s almost 50 years of importing natural gas from Russia.
The measure taken by the Russian power large Gazprom was in line with an earlier announcement following Helsinki’s refusal to pay for the gas in rubles as Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded European international locations do since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
The Finnish state-owned gas firm Gasum stated that “natural gas provides to Finland below Gasum’s provide contract have been reduce off” by Russia on Saturday morning at 7 a.m. native time (0400 GMT).
The announcement follows Moscow’s choice to reduce off electrical energy exports to Finland earlier this month and an earlier choice by the Finnish state-controlled oil firm Neste to exchange imports of Russian crude oil with crude oil from elsewhere.
After many years of power cooperation that was seen helpful for each Helsinki — significantly in the case of cheap Russian crude oil — and Moscow, Finland’s power ties with Russia at the moment are all however gone.
Such a break was simpler for Finland than it is going to be for different European Union nations. Natural gas accounts for just a few 5% of complete power consumption in Finland, a nation of 5.5 million. Almost all of that gas comes from Russia, and is used primarily by industrial and different firms with solely an estimated 4,000 households counting on gas heating.
Finland’s state-owned gas firm says it is going to now use different gas sources
Gasum stated it will now provide natural gas to its prospects from different sources via the undersea Balticconnector gas pipeline operating between Finland and Estonia and connecting the Finnish and Baltic gas grids.
Matti Vanhanen, the previous Finnish prime minister and present speaker of Parliament, stated the impact of Moscow’s choice to reduce off gas after almost 50 years because the first deliveries from the Soviet Union started is above all symbolic.
In an interview Saturday with the Finnish public broadcaster YLE, Vanhanen stated the choice marks an finish of “a vastly essential interval between Finland, the Soviet Union and Russia, not solely in power phrases however symbolically.”
“That pipeline is unlikely to ever open once more,” Vanhanen instructed YLE, referring to the 2 parallel Russia-Finland natural gas pipelines that have been launched in 1974.
The first connections from Finland’s energy grid to the Soviet transmission system have been additionally constructed in the Seventies, permitting electrical energy imports to Finland in case further capability was wanted.
The speaker of Finland’s Parliament says Moscow is retaliating for sanctions
Vanhanen did not see Moscow’s gas stoppage as a retaliatory step from Russia to Finland’s bid to be part of NATO however reasonably a countermove to Western sanctions imposed on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine.
“Russia did the identical factor with Finland it has carried out earlier with another international locations to keep its personal credibility,” Vanhanen stated, referring to the Kremlin’s calls for to purchase its gas in rubles.
Finland shares a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) with Russia, the longest of any of the EU’s 27 members, and has a conflict-ridden historical past with its enormous jap neighbor.
After dropping two wars to Soviet Union, in World War II, Finland opted for neutrality with steady and pragmatic political and financial ties with Moscow. Large-scale power cooperation, additionally together with nuclear energy, between the 2 international locations was one of the crucial seen indicators of pleasant bilateral ties between former enemies.
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