Russia stops supplying electricity to Finland
New Iron Curtain – “We seem to be heading towards it”
The Scandinavian countries Finland and Sweden now apparently want to join NATO. Political scientist Prof. Heinz Gärtner sees the danger of a new Cold War.
Just one day after Finland announced its intention to join NATO, Russia stopped supplying electricity to the neighboring country. The official reason is payment difficulties.
DAccording to the Finnish network operator Fingrid, the Russian utility Inter RAO will stop supplying electricity to Finland from 1 a.m. on Saturday (local time) until further notice. The reason is that the Russian company has not received any payments via the Nord Pool energy exchange since May 6, Fingrid said, citing a statement from Inter RAO. Fingerrid is not responsible for the payments. Nord Pool declined to comment.
“We no longer have the option of paying for the imported electricity and must therefore stop importing electricity from Russia from May 14,” said a spokesman for RAO Nordic, a subcontractor of the Russian state-owned company Inter RAO.
“This situation is extraordinary and has occurred for the first time in our more than twenty-year trading history,” the company continued. It hopes that the situation will improve “soon” and trade can resume.
A spokesman for another energy company, Finnish Energy, said there would be no shortage of electricity in the country as a result – although the supply freeze would result in higher prices. Payment difficulties are officially given as the reason. About ten percent of Finnish energy consumption is covered with imported electricity from Russia. This should be replaced with electricity imports from Sweden.
One day after the decision for NATO
On Thursday, Russia described Finland’s planned NATO membership as a threat. Russia will analyze the consequences of Finland joining NATO with a view to its own security, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Sanna Marin had previously spoken out in favor of their country joining NATO immediately. It is now expected that Finland will formally decide to apply for membership in the coming days.
The Russian Foreign Ministry described this as a radical change in the country’s foreign policy. “Russia will be forced to take both military-technical and other countermeasures to stop growing threats to its national security,” it said.