Finnish Village Protests against Gazprom's Pipeline Plans

Gazprom's plans to construct a major gas pipeline together with Finnish energy concern Fortum have run into opposition from the Finnish rural community of Pohja. The pipeline is to run across southern Finland and then along the sea floor to deliver Russian gas to Germany. According to the STT news agency, the residents of Pohja have today handed petitions protesting against plans to build the pipeline through the community to representatives of the regional government and Fortum. The petition has been signed by 1,400 local residents. Pohja has a total population of around 5,000.

The petition states that constructing the pipeline would cause unjustifiable damage to the Fiskars museum village, located in the community, which is a nationally significant site. Local environmentalists also claim that Gazprom and Fortum are forging ahead with their plans without any evaluation of the effects constructing the pipeline would have on the local environment.

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