Finland Faces Russia Electricity Cutoff

By Staff, Agencies

Russia will halt electricity deliveries to Finland as of 1 a.m. on Saturday, Finland's grid operator said on Friday, adding, however, that replacing Russian power imports won’t be difficult.

"Further direct or bilateral sales of electricity imported from Russia will be halted until further notice due to problems in receiving payments for electricity sold on the market," said RAO Nordic, a subsidiary of Russian utility Inter RAO, according to Finland's Fingrid.

Finland got 14 percent of its electricity from Russia last year, according to the Finnish public broadcaster.

“The lack of electricity import from Russia will be compensated by importing more electricity from Sweden and by generating more electricity in Finland,” said Reima Paivinen, Fingrid's senior vice president of power system operations.

Relations between Moscow and Helsinki have soured after Finland said it would apply to join NATO in reaction to Russia's military operation in Ukraine.

Finland has also been moving to end imports of Russian coal, gas and oil.

"We’re talking about weeks or months rather than years when it comes to Finland,” Prime Minister Sanna Marin said last month.