Vladimir Putin may hold phone talks on Tuesday with Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store to discuss peace in Ukraine.
The planned conversations are part of renewed international efforts to revive peace negotiations, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the preparations.
According to the news agency, European allies of Ukraine are eager to secure a seat at the negotiating table for talks on regional security. Both Store and Stubb are using their nations' shared borders with Russia as a key reason why they should take an active part in the discussions.
First European contacts in over a year
If the telephone calls proceed on 27 October, they will represent Putin's first direct contact with European leaders since July 2025. French President Emmanuel Macron was the last European leader to hold a telephone conversation with the Russian president.
The initiative also follows reporting by the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung on 24 October, which identified Stubb as the leading candidate to act as a European envoy in any future dialogue with Moscow.
Nordic borders and regional security
Finland and Norway both share land frontiers with Russia in northern Europe. Finland shares an eastern border stretching more than 1,300 kilometres with Russia, representing the European Union's longest land frontier with the country. Norway shares an Arctic land border with Russia in the far north, near the Kola Peninsula.
Both Nordic nations maintain close defence ties with Western partners. Norway is a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, having joined the alliance in 1949. Finland ended decades of military non-alignment to join NATO following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
Stubb took office as president of Finland in March 2024, directing foreign and defence policy under the Finnish constitution after previously serving as prime minister. Store has served as Norway's prime minister since October 2021, following a lengthy diplomatic career that included seven years as foreign minister.
Direct high-level contact between Moscow and European capitals has been minimal since Russian troops entered Ukraine in February 2022. Western leaders have largely avoided direct talks with Putin, focusing instead on sanctions against Moscow and military assistance to Kyiv.
