Finland’s decision to join NATO has enraged Russia, which has announced that all electrical supplies would be suspended this weekend, according to an AFP report. Tensions between Russia and Finland continue to increase as the latter pursues its ambition to join NATO, which Russia has labeled a ‘threat’.
The decision comes after Finland said on Thursday that it wants to join NATO ‘as soon as possible,’ a position bolstered by the current Russia-Ukraine conflict. ‘We are compelled to halt power imports from May 14,’ RAO Nordic, a subsidiary of Russian state energy giant Inter RAO, said in a statement, according to AFP.
‘RAO Nordic is unable to make payments for imported Russian power. This is a unique scenario that has occurred for the first time in over 20 years of our trading experience,’ they noted. Earlier, Russia underlined its concern with Finland’s hasty decision to join NATO. NATO’s expansion and proximity to our borders do not make the globe and our continent more stable and safe,’ Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to Reuters.
The Kremlin also stated that if Finland continues with its NATO membership process, they would be ‘obliged to take reciprocal actions, military-technical and other, to meet the resultant risks’. Finland is prepared to cope if Russia shuts off its natural gas supply, the government’s emergency readiness committee said during a meeting on Friday. ‘Finland is prepared to suspend Russian natural gas imports,’ according to the statement.
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