During a conversation with the President of Finland and the Prime Minister of Norway, Putin lectured them about the history of the Slavs in the Middle Ages. F.T. Vladimir Putin spent most of his phone call with Finnish and Norwegian leaders Alexander Staab and Jonas Gahr Stora lecturing on the history of the Slavs in the Middle Ages, sources told the Financial Times. According to three of the newspaper's interlocutors, instead of discussing the main issues of ending the war, Putin spoke at length about what the Kremlin calls "the root causes of the conflict" (they are also mentioned in the Kremlin's own report on this phone call). The prospect of an immediate ceasefire sought by Ukraine has hardly been discussed, FT sources added. According to one of them, the leaders of the Northern European countries decided not to disturb Putin in order to understand how serious he is in the dialogue with Europe. The phone call with Staab and Stora the day before was Putin's first contact with European leaders who support Ukraine since July 2025. The initiative for this conversation came from the leaders of Finland and Norway. The conversation lasted about an hour and a half, and its purpose was to "convey directly to President Putin Ukraine's position regarding the upcoming peace negotiations in Abu Dhabi." Read more about it here. Open with VPN | No VPN.