Russia's Gazprom has halted natural-gas exports to neighboring Finland, Finnish state-owned energy company Gasum said, the latest escalation of an energy payments dispute with Western countries.
Gazprom Export has demanded that European countries pay for Russian gas supplies in rubles because of sanctions imposed over Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, but Finland has refused to do so.
"Gas imports through Imatra entry point have been stopped," Gasgrid Finland said in a statement.
Imatra is the entry point for Russian gas into Finland.
Gazprom confirmed it had "completely stopped gas deliveries," as it had not received ruble payments from Finland's Gasum "by the end of the working day on May 20."
Gasum added that gas would instead be supplied from other sources through the Balticconnector pipeline, which connects Finland to Estonia.
The move follows Finland's decision earlier this week to apply to join NATO as it seeks to bolster its security in light of Russia's aggression against Ukraine.
Matti Vanhanen, the former Finnish prime minister and current speaker of parliament, said the effect of Moscow's decision to cut off gas after nearly 50 years since the first deliveries from the Soviet Union began was above all symbolic.
In a May 21 interview with the Finnish public broadcaster YLE, Vanhanen said the decision marked the end of "a hugely important period between Finland, the Soviet Union, and Russia, not only in energy terms but symbolically."
"That pipeline is unlikely to ever open again," Vanhanen told YLE, referring to the two parallel Russia-Finland gas pipelines that were launched in 1974.
Moscow has already cut off gas to other countries, including Bulgaria and Poland, after they refused to comply with the new payment terms.
The majority of gas used in Finland comes from Russia, but gas only accounts for about 5 percent of its annual energy consumption.
Finland also agreed on May 20 to charter a storage and regasification vessel from a U.S company to help replace Russian supplies. The vessel turns supercooled liquefied natural gas back into gas.
