Russia cuts off gas exports to Finland in symbolic move

HELSINKI –

Russia halted fuel exports to neighbouring Finland on Saturday, a extremely symbolic transfer that got here simply days after the Nordic nation introduced it wished to hitch NATO and marked a possible finish to Finland’s practically 50 years of importing pure fuel from Russia.

The measure taken by the Russian vitality big Gazprom was in keeping with an earlier announcement following Helsinki’s refusal to pay for the fuel in rubles as Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded European international locations do since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

The Finnish state-owned fuel firm Gasum said that “pure fuel provides to Finland beneath 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 resolution to chop off electrical energy exports to Finland earlier this month and an earlier resolution by the Finnish state-controlled oil firm Neste to interchange imports of Russian crude oil with crude oil from elsewhere.

After a long time of vitality cooperation that was seen useful for each Helsinki — significantly within the case of cheap Russian crude oil — and Moscow, Finland’s vitality ties with Russia are actually all however gone.

Such a break was simpler for Finland than it is going to be for different European Union nations. Pure fuel accounts for just a few 5% of complete vitality consumption in Finland, a rustic of 5.5 million. Virtually all of that fuel comes from Russia, and is used primarily by industrial and different firms with solely an estimated 4,000 households counting on fuel heating.

Gasum said it could now provide pure fuel to its clients from different sources by means of the undersea Balticconnector fuel pipeline working between Finland and Estonia and connecting the Finnish and Baltic fuel grids.

Matti Vanhanen, the previous Finnish prime minister and present speaker of Parliament, said the impact of Moscow’s resolution to chop off fuel after practically 50 years for the reason that first deliveries from the Soviet Union started is above all symbolic.

In an interview Saturday with the Finnish public broadcaster YLE, Vanhanen said the choice marks an finish of “a massively necessary interval between Finland, the Soviet Union and Russia, not solely in vitality phrases however symbolically.”

“That pipeline is unlikely to ever open once more,” Vanhanen informed YLE, referring to the 2 parallel Russia-Finland pure fuel pipelines that have been launched in 1974.

The primary connections from Finland’s energy grid to the Soviet transmission system have been additionally constructed within the Seventies, permitting electrical energy imports to Finland in case further capability was wanted.

Vanhanen did not see Moscow’s fuel stoppage as a retaliatory step from Russia to Finland’s bid to hitch NATO however somewhat a countermove to Western sanctions imposed on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine.

“Russia did the identical factor with Finland it has completed earlier with another international locations to take care of its personal credibility,” Vanhanen said, referring to the Kremlin’s calls for to purchase its fuel in rubles.

Finland shares a 1,340-kilometre (830-mile) with Russia, the longest of any of the EU’s 27 members, and has a conflict-ridden historical past with its big japanese neighbour.

After shedding two wars to Soviet Union, in teh Second Phrase Warfare, Finland opted for neutrality with steady and pragmatic political and financial ties with Moscow. Massive-scale vitality cooperation, additionally together with nuclear energy, between the 2 international locations was one of the vital seen indicators of pleasant bilateral ties between former enemies.