Putin spent a call with Finnish and Norwegian leaders lecturing them on Slavic history, FT reports

Russian President Vladimir Putin spent much of an October 27 phone call with Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre recounting the “medieval Slavic history,” the Financial Times reported, citing sources familiar with the conversation.The call was initially expected to last 30 minutes but instead ran for an hour and a half.Putin spent most of the call describing what the Kremlin considers the “initial reasons for the conflict” rather than discussing ways to end the Russia–Ukraine war, according to the Financial Times. The prospect of an immediate ceasefire came up only briefly, the outlet’s sources said.One of the sources said Stubb and Støre chose not to interrupt Putin, wanting to gauge how serious he was about pursuing dialogue with Europe.The conversation between Stubb, Støre, and Putin took place at the initiative of Western leaders. The Kremlin reported the day before that the Russian president had “assessed the current situation” in Ukraine, recalling the “root causes of the conflict,” and had also drawn attention to the “confrontational policy of EU and NATO countries, which is prolonging the fighting.” A source close to the Kremlin told Reuters that Putin told Stubb and Støre that Russia would not abandon its goal of seizing the entire territory of Donbas. The European leaders responded that a “just” peace was necessary.During conversations with Western politicians and journalists, Putin has repeatedly spent a long time recounting his version of the history of Russia and Ukraine. He did so, for example, in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson in 2024, and during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in Alaska.At the end of October 2026, Putin, in an interview with Pavel Zarubin, a correspondent for the Russian state broadcasting company VGTRK, commenting on his meeting with Trump’s negotiators, said that Russia does not want to fight Ukraine. According to him, “the latest genetic research shows that this is one people — Russians and Ukrainians.” It is unclear what research he was referring to.At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at [email protected].To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.