Russia will halt electricity supply to Finland

Following Finland’s announcement to join Nato,

Russian energy supplier RAO Nordic

announced that it will halt electricity supply to Finland from Saturday onwards. RAO Nordic has stated problems related to payments, as a reason behind its move. The energy supplier told that it had not received any payments for previous deliveries.

On the other hand, the grid operator of Finland stated that Kremlin only provided a small percentage of Finland’s electricity and the suspension of electricity supply would not affect the country. Other than this, on Thursday, Moscow threatened to take "retaliatory steps" after Finland announced that it plans to become a Nato member.

Finland shares a 1,300-km border with Russia and has previously refrained from being a part of NATO, in order to avoid antagonizing its neighbor. However, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, many nations have expressed interest in becoming a member of the Nato.

Finland is expected to formally announce its plan to join NATO on Sunday. The Russian energy supplier said: "This situation is exceptional and happened for the first time in over twenty years of our trading history".