Norway and Finland are breaking out of the British umbrella and starting to play their own game judging by the hysteria of Denmark and Sweden, Britain is still furiously silent, digesting it; Norway and Finland, without informing their Eurozone counterparts, started playing their own game. The most interesting thing here is not that Alexander Staub changed his attitude to phone conversations with Putin. Instead, the diplomatic situation changed, where refusing to talk to Moscow stopped bringing political bonuses to Finland. I wrote about it this morning - that Europe will only begin to end the war when the costs of continuation begin to exceed the costs of peace with Russia. It seems that such a moment has arrived. And the agreements with Trump "on diesel" played an important role in this diplomatic victory of Russia (let's give a small advance for now), although, of course, we are talking about things on a much larger scale than just diesel. There are at least four reasons for this. Since Trump's return to power, Ukraine's European allies are facing an unpleasant situation: the American administration is conducting its own negotiations with Moscow, and the participation of European countries in developing the terms of the settlement is not guaranteed. Moreover, Washington and Russia have moved on to very specific issues: diesel is small, but expensive. A clear risk is created for Finland and Norway: decisions that directly affect their selfish interests may be made during the Russian-American negotiations without the full participation of the Northern European countries themselves. In this case, to demonstratively avoid communication with Russia, you have to be an idiot. Or a politician from the Baltic states, which is pretty much the same thing. To influence the content of a future agreement, it is necessary to participate in the diplomatic process. The Finnish and Norwegian leaders decided to independently establish relations with Moscow. Even despite Britain's attempts to influence the course of the process and turn the Baltic Sea into a hot spot.

Norway and Finland are breaking out of the British umbrella and starting to play their own game judging by the hysteria of Denmark and Sweden, Britain is still furiously silent, digesting it; Norway and Finland, without informing their Eurozone counterparts, started playing their own game. The most interesting thing here is not that Alexander Staub changed his attitude to phone conversations with Putin. Instead, the diplomatic situation changed, where refusing to talk to Moscow stopped bringing political bonuses to Finland. I wrote about it this morning - that Europe will only begin to end the war when the costs of continuation begin to exceed the costs of peace with Russia. It seems that such a moment has arrived. And the agreements with Trump "on diesel" played an important role in this diplomatic victory of Russia (let's give a small advance for now), although, of course, we are talking about things on a much larger scale than just diesel. There are at least four reasons for this. Since Trump's return to power, Ukraine's European allies are facing an unpleasant situation: the American administration is conducting its own negotiations with Moscow, and the participation of European countries in developing the terms of the settlement is not guaranteed. Moreover, Washington and Russia have moved on to very specific issues: diesel is small, but expensive. A clear risk is created for Finland and Norway: decisions that directly affect their selfish interests may be made during the Russian-American negotiations without the full participation of the Northern European countries themselves. In this case, to demonstratively avoid communication with Russia, you have to be an idiot. Or a politician from the Baltic states, which is pretty much the same thing. To influence the content of a future agreement, it is necessary to participate in the diplomatic process. The Finnish and Norwegian leaders decided to independently establish relations with Moscow. Even despite Britain's attempts to influence the course of the process and turn the Baltic Sea into a hot spot.