U.S. "Not Surprised" By Russia's 'Weaponizing' Energy

Russian supply of natural gas to Finland will be cut this morning, a move that is widely seen as Moscow' first retaliatory act against Helsinki after the latter officially applied to join the NATO military alliance.

Both Finnish and Russian energy companies confirmed the news on Friday, albeit Russian gas giant Gazprom insisted that the move was because the Finnish company "had not paid" it for gas delivered in April under new Russian rules requiring settlement in roubles.

"It is highly regrettable that natural gas supplies under our supply contract will now be halted," Finnish Gasum said in a statement.

In Washington, the State Department's spokesperson criticised the move, saying that "this is not the first time Russia has attempted to weaponize energy," TURAN's U.S. correspondent reports.

"What we are doing is to work with our allies and partners to see to it that, going forward, Russia won’t be able to do this in a way that holds hostage countries in the region and around the world who have a reliance on Russian energy sources" Price told TURAN's correspondent during the Department's daily press briefing.

In many ways, he said, "what we’re seeing from Russia is not surprising precisely because they have done this before."

"They have done this before, in the context of Ukraine in 2014; they have done this before in the context of Ukraine, more recently; and of course, we’ve seen them make these threats and follow through with actions in the aftermath of Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine on February 24th"

Well before Russia’s invasion, the U.S. began working very closely with allies and partners around the world, including those partners in Europe that are reliant on Russian energy, Price said.

"And we’ve done this with two time frames in mind. In the short term, we have sought to ensure that there is adequate energy supply available to our allies and partners, in part by tapping various strategic petroleum reserves – our own, a million barrels a day over the course of six months is what President Biden has committed to; other allies and partners around the world are doing the same," he said.

Washington is working with partners to see to it that energy is shipped and available to countries that may find themselves vulnerable to Russia’s manipulation in the near term.

"Of course, this is not only a near-term challenge. There is a longer-term dimension to this as well, and our goal is to see to it that countries in Europe and countries well beyond, including countries that have been reliant on Russian energy for decades, are and will be in a position to lessen that reliance over time," Price said.

In the case of Europe, he added, in the aftermath of President Biden’s visit to Brussels last summer, "we established with our European Union counterpart, the U.S.-EU Energy Council, to discuss these very issues, how we can work together to see to it that in the years to come Russia is not able to use energy as a weapon in the same way"

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.