Russia cuts electricity supply to Finland — amid NATO membership face-off

Inter RAO, a Russian state-owned utility, says it has suspended electricity supply to Finland, citing payment difficulties. 

Meanwhile, Finland would formally announce plans its decision to join NATO — which Russia opposes — on Sunday.

In a statement issued on Friday, RAO Nordic, the company’s Finnish subsidiary, said the halt in electricity supply to the Scandinavian country was happening for the first time in over two decades. 

“This situation is exceptional and happened for the first time in over twenty years of our trading history,” it said. 

Rao Nordic said that it was “forced to suspend the electricity import” from May 14″.

It added that the energy firm was not able to make payments for the imported electricity from Russia.

Fingrid, a Finnish grid company,  confirmed that power imports to Finland would be halted from 1am local time on Saturday “for the time being”. 

It added it was facing problems in receiving payments for selling electricity in the market. 

Fingrid added there was no threat to Finnish supplies and that power from Russia accounted for some 10 per cent of Finland’s total consumption.

“Missing imports can be replaced in the electricity market by importing more electricity from Sweden and also by domestic production,” it said.