Finland and Norway’s call to Putin leaves Moscow ‘cold’

The leaders of Finland and Norway held a rare 90-minute telephone call with Vladimir Putin on 27 October. The aim was to push for an end to the war in Ukraine, but Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, later said it had produced nothing new.

The Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, and the Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, said they stressed the importance of de-escalation. Stubb described the exchange as frank and substantive. They said they acted as leaders of their own countries, not on behalf of Europe, and that the call was prepared in consultation with Ukraine, the US and other allies.

The call followed a 20 October meeting in Oslo involving US envoy Steve Witkoff and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and came ahead of US-brokered talks planned for Abu Dhabi in November. Lavrov said he had not yet seen a transcript but that apparently nothing new had been said, and he accused European countries of simply seeking a role in the negotiations.

The call broke with the practice, since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, of many Western European leaders avoiding direct contact with the Kremlin. Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, expressed scepticism, and Poland’s Donald Tusk said such contacts demanded absolute caution. Zelenskyy thanked the two leaders and said they had made clear to Putin that attacks on Ukraine’s energy system must be reduced.

Sources: Al Jazeera, Euromaidan Press, IBTimes.