Vanhanen suggested that it might be difficult for Finland to grant a permit for such a venture if the source of the electricity was the ageing Sosnovy Bor nuclear power plant. The Russian power company United Power says the electricity would be from the Russian national electric grid, not specifically from Sosnovy Bor.
The 30-year-old Sosnovy Bor plant includes a reactor of the type that blew up at Chernobyl in 1986.
Vanhanen noted that the cable might also be directly linked from Russia to Sweden, which has a greater need for energy.
He reiterated that the proposed cable is purely a business issue, not a political matter -- repeating a statement he and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov made during a joint press conference the day before.
Meanwhile the Ministry of Trade and Industry has set up a panel of experts to study the cost of such a cable, the subject of wildly varying estimates.