Angry Russia Cuts Off Gas to Estonia : Embargo: The stoppage comes a day after President Yeltsin threatened reprisals for what he called the Baltic state’s ‘apartheid’ policy.

Russia abruptly shut off natural gas supplies to Estonia on Friday, one day after President Boris N. Yeltsin threatened reprisals for what he called a policy of “apartheid” against Estonia’s large Russian minority.

Estonia has enough natural gas to last a few days, but will then be forced to import liquid gas by sea.

“Natural gas is about the only life-sustaining commodity for which Estonia is still dependent on Moscow,” said Tiit Made, an economist and leading member of Estonia’s Parliament. “To give the Russian leadership their due, they were very quick to implement their poorly veiled threats.”

“They want to cut gas, let them do it,” Made added. “We will suffer but not for long, and in a way that will teach us to be more independent.”

The Russian gas company Lenstrangaz told the Interfax news agency that it stopped deliveries Friday afternoon because of Estonia’s $8-million unpaid energy bill. But the cutoff came just as the Russian Parliament was discussing economic sanctions against Estonia in retaliation for a law on foreigners that the new Baltic nation adopted this week.

The law in essence requires non-Estonians to pass an Estonian language test and apply for Estonian citizenship, or they could eventually be forced to leave the country. It is directed at the estimated 470,000 ethnic Russians and other Slavs who settled in Estonia after the Soviet takeover and now constitute about 30% of the population.

Yeltsin called the law “ethnic cleansing and the introduction of an Estonian version of apartheid.” Estonian officials say the law is simply intended to clarify the status of the “foreigners” by asking them to choose whether they wish to become Estonian citizens.

Prime Minister Mart Laar said the law had been distorted by a “disinformation campaign” and portrayed as signaling the mass deportation of the Russian-speaking population, according to the Baltfax news service.

In a radio broadcast Friday, Laar informed Estonians of the gas shut-off, and asked them not to panic and not to take reprisals against ethnic Russians.

“I wish to remind you that this is not the fault of Russians in Estonia,” he said.

Since winning independence from Moscow in 1991, Estonia has tried to unhinge its economy from Russia’s. Like its Baltic neighbors, Latvia and Lithuania, Estonia did not join the Commonwealth of Independent States and now does only 17% of its trade with Russia.

Much of that is in fuel imports, for which Estonia now pays hard currency--and could buy from other suppliers. However, Estonia uses 500 million cubic meters of Russian gas a year, delivered by pipeline. Interfax reported that half of that is consumed in the three northeastern cities with large Slavic populations.

Estonian officials said an embargo would most hurt the people Moscow is trying to help, as it would affect industry more than Estonian consumers, and ethnic Russians make up 75% of the industrial work force.

The fate of the 25 million ethnic Russians who, due to the breakup of the Soviet Union, now find themselves living in foreign countries, is potentially one of the most explosive issues in Russian politics. Mistreatment of Russians abroad could prompt the Russian army to invade.

Nikolai A. Pavlov, a Russian lawmaker from the hard-right National Salvation Front, complained that the gas cutoff does not go nearly far enough. He called for Russia to break all economic and diplomatic ties with Estonia.

“Yes, Russian speakers may also suffer from such sanctions,” Pavlov said. “But here we are dealing with a clear case of undisguised apartheid in Europe.”

The Russian government made no statement about the cutoff. Bogdan Budzulyak, vice president of Gazprom, a semi-private company licensed to sell Russian gas abroad, said that negotiations over Estonia’s failure to pay its debt had been going on for three months and that the gas was cut off only after a warning telegram had been sent.

However, Made said Estonia intends to pay the bill when the Kremlin unfreezes $80 million in Estonian assets that it seized a year ago when Estonia dumped the ruble and introduced its own currency, the krona.

Times special correspondent Sergei Loiko contributed to this report.