Russia's Gazprom on Saturday stopped exporting gas to Finland, Reuters reported citing the operator of the Finnish gas system,

The news agency said it was the latest escalation in a dispute with Western countries over energy payments.

"Gas imports through Imatra entry point have been stopped," Gasgrid Finland said in a statement.

Imatra is the entry point for Russian gas into Finland. Finnish state-run gas wholesaler Gasum said Friday that Gazprom had warned to stop supplies as of 04:00 GMT Saturday morning.

Earlier, Gazprom demanded that European countries pay for Russian gas supplies in rubles because of sanctions imposed on Russia over the situation in Ukraine, but Finland refused to do so.