HELSINKI -
Russia halted gasoline exports to neighbouring Finland on Saturday, a extremely symbolic transfer that got here simply days after the Nordic nation introduced it needed to hitch NATO and marked a probable finish to Finland's practically 50 years of importing pure gasoline from Russia.
The measure taken by the Russian vitality large Gazprom was consistent with an earlier announcement following Helsinki's refusal to pay for the gasoline in rubles as Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded European nations do since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
The Finnish state-owned gasoline firm Gasum mentioned that "pure gasoline provides to Finland below Gasum's provide contract have been lower off" by Russia on Saturday morning at 7 a.m. native time (0400 GMT).
The announcement follows Moscow's choice to chop off electrical energy exports to Finland earlier this month and an earlier choice by the Finnish state-controlled oil firm Neste to switch imports of Russian crude oil with crude oil from elsewhere.
After many years of vitality cooperation that was seen helpful for each Helsinki -- significantly within the case of cheap Russian crude oil -- and Moscow, Finland's vitality ties with Russia at the moment are all however gone.
Such a break was simpler for Finland than it will likely be for different European Union nations. Pure gasoline accounts for just a few 5% of whole vitality consumption in Finland, a rustic of 5.5 million. Nearly all of that gasoline comes from Russia, and is used primarily by industrial and different corporations with solely an estimated 4,000 households counting on gasoline heating.
Gasum mentioned it might now provide pure gasoline to its clients from different sources by the undersea Balticconnector gasoline pipeline operating between Finland and Estonia and connecting the Finnish and Baltic gasoline grids.
Matti Vanhanen, the previous Finnish prime minister and present speaker of Parliament, mentioned the impact of Moscow's choice to chop off gasoline after practically 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 mentioned the choice marks an finish of "a massively essential 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 advised YLE, referring to the 2 parallel Russia-Finland pure gasoline 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 Nineteen Seventies, permitting electrical energy imports to Finland in case extra capability was wanted.
Vanhanen did not see Moscow's gasoline stoppage as a retaliatory step from Russia to Finland's bid to hitch NATO however moderately 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 nations to take care of its personal credibility," Vanhanen mentioned, referring to the Kremlin's calls for to purchase its gasoline 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 large japanese neighbour.
After dropping two wars to Soviet Union, in teh Second Phrase Battle, Finland opted for neutrality with secure and pragmatic political and financial ties with Moscow. Giant-scale vitality cooperation, additionally together with nuclear energy, between the 2 nations was one of the vital seen indicators of pleasant bilateral ties between former enemies.
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