Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Finnish President Alexander Stubb spent 90 minutes on the phone with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, a full hour longer than planned, according to a Financial Times account cited by n-tv.de. The two Nordic leaders had intended to sound out what prospects might exist for peace negotiations over Ukraine. Instead, n-tv.de reports, the Russian president delivered what amounted to a history seminar on the medieval Slavic world.
The call has drawn criticism in Europe since it became public, and the newly reported details have sharpened that reaction. According to the Financial Times, three people familiar with the conversation said Stubb and Støre deliberately let Putin talk without interrupting. The aim, those sources said, was to gauge how seriously Moscow actually takes dialogue with Europe about ending the war.
Why it matters
The episode lands in the middle of a wider dispute among Ukraine's backers over how to approach Moscow. Sceptics of continued isolation have argued that talking to Putin is worth trying. The Nordic call was one of the more prominent recent attempts by European leaders to test that proposition directly. The reported outcome — a long monologue about the distant past rather than a discussion of a ceasefire — is being read in Berlin and other European capitals as a signal about the Kremlin's priorities. It also raises questions about coordination, with the call described in German media as a solo move by Oslo and Helsinki that unsettled partners.
A lecture instead of a negotiation
The format itself is telling. A 90-minute call between three heads of government is a substantial investment of time, and the extra hour suggests Putin was in no hurry to move to the subject his counterparts had in mind. Rather than exchanging proposals on halting the fighting, he is said to have walked the two leaders through the history of the Slavs in the Middle Ages. The Financial Times reporting does not indicate that any concrete step toward talks emerged from the conversation.
For Støre and Stubb, the decision not to cut in appears to have been tactical. By allowing Putin to continue, they could observe whether he would eventually turn to the war and to Europe's role in ending it — and, implicitly, how much substance lay behind any talk of dialogue. The fact that the conversation ran so far past its scheduled length, and that the reported content stayed in the distant past, is the answer those sources drew from it.
Criticism from partners
The call had already provoked irritation before the details surfaced. German outlets framed it as a unilateral initiative by Norway and Finland that caught other European governments off guard, and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen criticised what was described as a go-it-alone approach, according to WELT. The reporting across n-tv.de, WELT, Tagesspiegel, Spiegel and BILD points to a common thread: allies were not prepared for two Nordic governments to open a direct channel to the Kremlin at this moment.
That reaction reflects a broader tension. European states have largely coordinated their posture toward Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and any leader who breaks ranks — even to explore peace prospects — risks being seen as undermining that unity. Oslo and Helsinki, both of which share a border or maritime proximity with Russia and have deep experience of dealing with Moscow, evidently judged that a direct conversation was worth the diplomatic cost. Whether that judgment holds will depend on what, if anything, follows.
What to watch
The immediate question is whether the Kremlin offers any account of the call that differs from the Financial Times reporting, and whether Støre and Stubb publicly characterise what they heard. Beyond that, watch whether other European governments distance themselves further from the Nordic initiative or quietly adopt a similar approach. The larger test is whether Tuesday's conversation produces any follow-up contact between Moscow and European capitals — or whether it is remembered mainly as a very long phone call about the Middle Ages.
