Gazprom, the Russian energy company, announced on Saturday that it had halted all natural gas deliveries to Finland due to a lack of ruble payment.

Following the deployment of Russian soldiers in Ukraine on February 24, Moscow has requested consumers from “unfriendly countries,” including EU member states, to pay for gas in rubles, circumventing Western financial sanctions.

According to a statement, Gazprom claimed it had “totally halted gas delivery” because it had not received ruble payments from Finland’s state-owned energy provider Gasum “before the end of the working day on May 20.”

“Starting April 1, payments for gas need to be made in rubles using new bank details, about which the counterparts were informed in a timely manner,” Gazprom stated.

In 2021, Gazprom delivered 1.49 billion cubic metres of natural gas to Finland, accounting for over two-thirds of the country’s gas consumption.

Natural gas, on the other hand, accounts for around 8% of Finland’s energy.

Finland has said that the Balticconnector pipeline, which connects Finland and Estonia, will compensate for the deficit and that filling stations will be fully operational.

The gas exports were halted on Saturday after Moscow cut Poland and Bulgaria off last month in a move the European Union characterised as “blackmail.”

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