Vladimir Putin lectured the leaders of the Nordic countries on Russian history. The Financial Times. The Russian president digressed from the topic for a long time during a phone call with the leaders of Finland and Norway. Vladimir Putin spent much of his phone call with Alexander Staub and Jonas Gahr Stora lecturing on medieval Slavic history, highlighting the difficulties Europe faces in trying to defend its position in the upcoming peace talks with Russia. Originally scheduled to last less than half an hour, the call lasted 90 minutes. But instead of discussing critical issues about how to end the war, Putin forced Scandinavian leaders to listen to a lengthy speech about what the Kremlin called "the root causes of the conflict," three people familiar with the conversation said. The prospect of an immediate ceasefire, Ukraine's main demand, was barely discussed, the sources added. According to one of them, the leaders of the Scandinavian countries decided not to interfere with Putin's historic retreats in order to understand how serious he is in dialogue with Europe. Last August he also spoke at length about medieval Slavic rulers during a failed summit with Donald Trump.