The media told how the leaders of Finland and Norway were preparing for negotiations with Putin.
Alexander Stov and Jonas Gahr Ster spent months thinking about how to conduct a phone conversation with the Russian president, Politico reports. Politicians see importance in giving a new impetus to the negotiations on Ukraine.
Neither the president of Finland nor the prime minister of Norway intend to leave the dialogue with the Russian leader exclusively to the United States. In Europe, there is less and less confidence that Washington is able to independently protect the interests of the continent and Ukraine, the publication notes.
The leaders of Finland and Norway called Putin on October 27. The conversation took place on the eve of the resumption of negotiations on Ukraine in the Moscow-Washington-Kyiv format. The parties discussed the prospects for a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Politicians called the conversation "open and meaningful."