The company responsible for selling Russian electricity to Finland, RAO Nordic, announced on Friday that it would suspend supplies at 00:00, citing non-payment, at the same time that Finland announced its candidacy for NATO.
Russian exports to Finland “are now at zero since midnight.” [22:00 em Lisboa]as announced,” Timo Kaukonen, head of operations at Fingrid, the Finnish electricity operator, told AFP.
According to the same source, supplies are balanced by imports from Sweden.
Helsinki-based RAO Nordic Oy, which owns Russia’s InterRAO, said in a statement Friday that it has not received payments for electricity supplied to Finland since May 6, citing a lack of funds to continue receiving electricity imported from Russia.
RAO Nordic, the main importer of electricity from Russia to the Scandinavian markets, has been operating in the European Union since 2002.
After the power cut was announced, Finnish grid operator Fingrid assured that it could easily do without energy imports from Russia, importing slightly more from Sweden and Norway.
So far, Finland has imported about 10% of its electricity from Russia.
The supply cut comes amid rising tensions between Moscow and Helsinki, which this week announced their intention to join NATO, a decision that was immediately criticized by the Kremlin, which threatened retaliation.
On Thursday, Finland, which has a long border with Russia, announced its desire to join NATO, and on Sunday must apply for membership, which will be announced at a press conference by President Sauli Niinistö and First Minister Sanna Marin.
The Kremlin has already said that Finland’s accession to NATO is a threat and that it will be forced to “take retaliatory military-technical and other measures” to respond to what it considers a “threat to national security.”
