Russia stops gas supplies to Finland

Created: 05/21/2022, 08:44

According to the Finnish energy company Gasum, Russia is stopping gas deliveries to Finland.

© Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva/dpa

Russia no longer supplies Finland with gas.

The reason for this, according to Finnish information, are disputes about payment in rubles.

However, the Finns are not expecting any bottlenecks for the time being.

Moscow/Espoo - As announced, Russia suspended its gas supplies to Finland on Saturday morning.

The Russian state-owned company Gazprom said that the Finnish utility Gasum paid its payments in rubles - not as requested by President Vladimir Putin.

According to Gazprom, Finland received two-thirds of its gas from Russia last year.

That was a total of 1.49 billion cubic meters of gas.

The company in Espoo also informed on Saturday morning about the cessation of deliveries.

Gasum will supply customers with gas from other sources via the Balticconnector pipeline starting immediately and during the summer season, the statement said.

The network continues to function normally.

Previously, Russia had also turned off the gas supply to Poland and Bulgaria because they do not pay in rubles.

Gasum and Gazprom had already announced on Friday that deliveries would be stopped.

The Finnish group had previously announced that it would not accept Gazprom Export's demands for payments to be made in rubles.

The two companies also disagree on other demands.

The dispute should be resolved through legal channels.

Well prepared

"However, we have carefully prepared for this situation, and if there are no disruptions in the gas network, we will be able to supply all of our customers with gas in the coming months," said Gasum boss Mika Wiljanen, according to the announcement on Friday.

According to Finnish Radio, gas accounts for only about five percent of the energy mix in Finland.

However, almost all of the gas comes from Russia.

According to Gasum, it was currently the only energy company in Finland to obtain gas directly from Russia.

According to the Federal Ministry of Economics and the Federal Network Agency, the delivery stop for Finland has no impact on the gas supply in Germany.

The new payment system ordered by Kremlin chief Putin requires customers to open an account with Russia's Gazprombank.

There they can still pay their bills in euros or dollars, the bank converts the money and transfers it to Gazprom.

According to the Russian leadership, many gas customers in the EU are following the new system, including in Germany.

dpa