Russia suspends electricity supply to Finland

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has told his Finnish counterpart that joining NATO would be “a mistake”, as Moscow cut off its electricity supply to the Nordic country earlier – in what is seen as retaliation for Helsinki’s moves. “Putin stressed that the end of the traditional policy of military neutrality would be a mistake since there is no threat to Finland’s security,” the Kremlin said in a statement on Saturday. “Such a change in the country’s political orientation can have a negative impact on Russian-Finnish relations developed over years in a spirit of good neighbourliness and cooperation between partners,” it said. The phone call, which was “initiated by Finland  was direct and straightforward and it was conducted without aggravations. Avoiding tensions was considered important,” Finnish President Sauli Niinisto was quoted as saying in a statement by his office.

Moscow's invasion on Ukraine has swung political and public opinion in Finland and neighbouring Sweden in favour of NATO membership as a deterrent against Russian aggression. Moscow has said that it would “definitely” see Finnish membership as a threat, warning that it would be “forced to take reciprocal steps, military-technical and other, to address the resulting threats”. Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Saturday that her country was “prepared for different types of action” from Moscow. “But there is no information indicating Russia will initiate military action against Finland,” she said.

Meanwhile, Russia has suspended the electricity supply to Finland. Russia's largest electricity company RAO Nordic has suspended electricity supply to Finland, owing to non-payment for the supplied electricity. RAO Nordic has been importing electricity from Russia to Finland for many years. The company said, this situation is exceptional and happened for the first time in over twenty years of our trading history. It is said that there were certain problems pertaining to receiving electricity payments, owing to which they decided on suspending the supplies, reported TASS.