Russia has backed down on power exports to Finland, Finnish operator Fingrid confirmed to CNN on Saturday.

Fingrid’s Senior Vice President of Power System Operations Reima Päivinen said the power supply was effectively cut at 12 am CET on Saturday, reported CNN. 

“The lack of electricity import from Russia will be compensated by importing more electricity from Sweden and by generating more electricity in Finland,” said Reima Päivinen, senior vice president of power system operations at Fingrid.

“We’re also heading into the summer and less electricity will be needed,” Päivinien said. He added that he was “confident there won’t be any major problems” next winter. 

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On Friday, Fingrid said Russia was pushing back power exports due to problems in receiving payments.

The announcement of the cut in electricity supplies came one day after Finland’s leaders declared their nation must apply to join NATO “without delay”, reported The Moscow Times. 

Meanwhile, Russia has warned that it would “definitely” see Finnish membership as a threat, while the Russian foreign ministry said Moscow would be “forced to take reciprocal steps, military-technical and other, to address the resulting threats.”

Ministers are planning for probable shutdowns and food shortages. Finland imports most of its gas from Russia but gas accounts for just 5 per cent of the country’s annual energy consumption, reported The Daily Mail. 

On Friday, Finland announced that it intends to start the formal application process to join the military pact, more than doubling NATO’s presence on Russia’s borders from 754 miles to 1,584 miles.

The decision is a spectacular backfire for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who invaded Ukraine in part through fears of Volodymyr Zelensky joining the US-led alliance.

Meanwhile Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he is not in favour of Sweden and Finland joining NATO, threatening to derail their membership bids.