Russian gas flows to neighboring Finland will stop on Saturday morning, Finnish state gas operator Gasum was quoted as saying by Reuters.

"On the afternoon of Friday, May 20, Gazprom Export informed Gasum that natural gas supplies to Finland under the supply contract will be suspended on Saturday, May 21 at 02.00 a.m.," the statement said.

The company assures that it is ready to continue supplying gas to its Finnish customers from other sources through the Balticconnector gas pipeline, which connects Finland and Estonia.

"We have been carefully preparing for this situation and, provided there are no disruptions in the gas transmission network, we will be able to supply all our customers with gas in the coming months," said Mika Wiljanen, the company's CEO.

About 70% of Finland's gas is imported from Russia, but it is just over 5% of the country's total energy consumption last year.

Finland has refused to pay Gazprom under the new terms, in rubles, earlier this week and warned that it expects to announce in the coming days that gas supplies will be cut off.

On May 14, Russia also stopped supplying electricity to Finland with an explanation for outstanding payments, but it was not clear whether they were again linked to the currency of repayment.

At the beginning of May, Gazprom stopped supplying natural gas under its contracts with operators in Bulgaria and Poland due to their non-compliance with the new terms of payment in Russian currency.

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