Finnish brewery launches 'NATO beer' to mark membership application
A small Finnish brewery a few dozen miles from the Russian border has launched a new beer to toast its country's application to join the NATO military alliance.
The lager is called Otan olutta – the first word a play on the French variation of the initials of North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The full name also means "I'll have some beer" in Finnish.
The brew had "a taste of security with a hint of freedom," Petteri Vanttinen, the chief executive of family-run Olaf Brewing told the Reuters news agency.
Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO on Wednesday, a decision spurred by their alarm over Russia's invasion of another neighbour, Ukraine.
Russian energy giant Gazprom has ceased exporting gas to neighboring Finland, the gas system operator Gasgrid Finland said on Saturday.
In the meantime, Russian energy giant Gazprom has ceased exporting gas to Finland, the gas system operator Gasgrid Finland said on Saturday.
The move comes after Gazprom Export, which later confirmed the stoppage, demanded that European countries pay for Russian gas supplies in rubles because of sanctions imposed over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Finland has refused to comply.