Finland says Russia is cutting off natural gas supplies

Russia will cut off natural gas to Finland after the Nordic country refused President Vladimir Putin's demand to pay in rubles, the Finnish state-owned energy company said Friday. The cutoff, coming the same week that Finland applied for NATO membership, is the latest escalation over European energy amid the war in Ukraine.

Finland is the most recent country to be cut off from an energy supply that is used to generate electricity and power industry. Poland and Bulgaria were cut off late last month but had prepared for the loss of gas or are getting supplies from other countries.

Putin has declared that "unfriendly foreign buyers" open two accounts in state-owned Gazprombank, one to pay in euros and dollars as specified in contracts and another in rubles. Italian energy company Eni said this week that it was "starting procedures" to open a euro and a ruble account.