Russia cuts off gas exports to Finland in symbolic move

By JARI TANNER
Associated Press

HELSINKI (AP) — Russia has halted natural gas exports to neighboring Finland. The highly symbolic move that came early Saturday marks a likely end to nearly 50 years of natural gas import from Moscow to Helsinki. It also comes just days after Finland announced it wanted to join NATO. Russia’s energy giant Gazprom cut gas supplies after Finland refused to pay for the gas in rubles as demanded by Russian President Vladimir Putin after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. Moscow also cut off electricity exports to Finland earlier this month. The Finnish state-controlled oil company Neste has also decided to replace imports of Russian crude oil with crude from elsewhere.