During a telephone conversation with Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre on October 27, Putin spent most of his time talking about the medieval history of the Slavs.
This was reported by the Financial Times, citing sources familiar with the content of the conversation.
Stubb told Finnish media that the conversation was supposed to last less than 30 minutes, but dragged on for 90. According to three journalistic sources, Putin did not want to discuss the key issues of ending the war in Ukraine, but instead gave a long speech about the “root causes of the war”.
The prospect of an immediate ceasefire was also barely discussed. According to FT, European leaders decided not to interrupt Putin to test how serious he was about dialogue with Europe.
FT notes that other European leaders were skeptical about Stubb and Støreʼs conversation with Putin. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen criticized the initiative because it had not been discussed with other EU countries. Italy also noted that this situation showed that Europe had not decided who should represent its interests in the negotiations.
- Stubb and Støreʼs conversation with Putin followed reports of a new round of trilateral talks between Ukraine, the US and Russia in Abu Dhabi in the first half of November. The Telegraph, citing diplomatic sources, wrote that Russia also wants to involve European leaders in order to obtain concessions from NATO.
- In particular, Russia may demand that the Alliance return its military presence in Europe to the level of 1997 — that is, before many Eastern European countries had yet to join NATO.
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