The Guardian
🔴 Central
29 Oct 2026
Pragmatic or pointless? Europe’s rift over whether to pick up the phone to Putin
🇫🇮 What is said about Finland
Finland’s president, Alexander Stubb, and Norway’s prime minister held a 90-minute call with Vladimir Putin, saying it was on Ukraine’s behalf and that allies had been informed in advance. Denmark and Sweden criticised the initiative as uncoordinated; a Finnish foreign-policy analyst said it exposed a serious rift in Nordic unity.
Quote from article
But a 90-minute phone call this week to Vladimir Putin by the leaders of Finland and Norway drew an unusual rebuke from their Danish and Swedish neighbours. On Tuesday, Finland’s president, Alexander Stubb, and Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, spoke with Putin, in a rare high-level conversation between the Russian leader and Ukraine’s European allies. Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said she was very sceptical about the independent initiative by Norway and Finland and questioned what they thought they could achieve. “Instead of looking like a firmly united, homogeneous group, we see a rift,” said Arkady Moshes, director of the Russia programme at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs.
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