BREAKING Bob Cole, veteran CBC broadcaster and former voice of 'Hockey Night in Canada,' dead at 90
Bob Cole, legendary CBC broadcaster and former voice of Hockey Night in Canada, has died. He was 90.
Russia will cut off natural gas to Finland after the Nordic country that applied for NATO membership this week refused President Vladimir Putin's demand to pay in rubles, the Finnish state-owned energy company said Friday, the latest escalation over European energy amid the war in Ukraine.
Finland is the latest country to lose the energy supply, which is used to generate electricity and power industry, after rejecting Russia's decree. Poland and Bulgaria were cut off late last month but, along with Finland, were relatively minor customers who had prepared to move away from Russian natural gas.
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.
The European Commission, the European Union's executive arm, has said the system does not violate EU sanctions if countries make a payment in the currency listed in their contracts and then formally signal that the payment process is concluded. But it says opening a second account in rubles would breach sanctions.
That has left countries scrambling to decide what to do next. Analysts say the EU stance is ambiguous enough to allow the Kremlin to keep trying to undermine unity among the 27 member countries -- but losing major European customers like Italy and Germany would cost Russia heavily. It comes as Europe tries to reduce its dependency on Russian oil and gas to avoid pouring hundreds of millions into Putin's war chest each day but build enough reserves before winter from scarce worldwide supplies.
Finland refused the new payment system, with energy company Gasum saying its supply from Russia would be halted Saturday.
CEO Mika Wiljanen called the cutoff "highly regrettable."
But "provided that there will be no disruptions in the gas transmission network, we will be able to supply all our customers with gas in the coming months," Wiljanen said.
Natural gas accounted for just 6% of Finland's total energy consumption in 2020, Finnish broadcaster YLE said. Almost all of that gas came from Russia. That pales in comparison to big importers like Italy and Germany, which get 40% and 35% of their gas from Russia, respectively.
According to Finland's Gasum, Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom said in April that future payments in its supply contract must be made in rubles instead of euros.
The cutoff was announced the same week that Finland, along with Sweden, applied to join the NATO military organization, marking one of the biggest geopolitical ramifications of the war that could rewrite Europe's security map.
The gas cutoff "has more to do with the sanctions and the fact that they want to be paid in rubles" than Finland's application to NATO, said Charly Salonius-Pasternak, an analyst with the Finnish Institute of International Affairs in Helsinki.
"Russia uses its energy as a weapon as part of its geopolitical thinking," he said. "It will have little impact on Finland, which has been diversifying its energy (sources) in recent years."
The government in Helsinki said Friday that it had signed a 10-year lease for a floating liquefied natural gas terminal in the Gulf of Finland and that necessary port structures will be built along the coasts of the Nordic country and Estonia, Economy Minister Mika Lintila said in a statement.
It "will play a major role in securing gas supplies for Finland's industry," Lintila said. The vessel should be ready to operate by next winter.
Finland and Estonia have been cooperating on renting the LNG terminal ship, which will provide enough storage and supply capacity to allow Russian gas to be abandoned in the neighbouring countries, said Gasgrid Finland, the transmission network company. A gas pipeline between the neighbours will make it possible to import gas from the Baltic states instead of Russia.
Meanwhile, Italian company Eni said Tuesday that it was moving to follow Putin's decree "in view of the imminent payment due in the coming days" but did not agree with the changes.
------
AP writer Colleen Barry contributed from Milan
____
Do you have any questions about the attack on Ukraine? Email dotcom@bellmedia.ca.
Bob Cole, legendary CBC broadcaster and former voice of Hockey Night in Canada, has died. He was 90.
New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, reversing a landmark ruling of the #MeToo era in determining the trial judge improperly allowed women to testify about allegations against the ex-movie mogul that weren't part of the case.
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
Researchers are working to better understand if some Canadian military veterans may be suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE -- a disorder previously found in the brains of professional football and hockey players after their death.
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore on Thursday after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, halting most maritime traffic through the city's port.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.