FT: Putin gave Støre and Stubb a lecture on Slavic history — Støre denies it

The British newspaper Financial Times reported that during a phone call the day before yesterday with Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Russian President Vladimir Putin talked about the history of the Slavs in the Middle Ages.

The Norwegian prime minister denied this.

According to the publication, the conversation was initially expected to last less than half an hour, but it lasted 90 minutes. At the same time, instead of discussing how to end the war in Ukraine, Putin, as the newspaper claims, gave his interlocutors a long lecture on the “root causes of the conflict” as seen by the Kremlin, and on medieval Slavic history. Three sources told Financial Times this.

Støre denied this information in a comment to TV2.

“This is not true. And we have asked Financial Times to correct this information, because it does not correspond to reality. The claim that he talked about Slavic history is simply wrong,” Støre said.

According to him, Putin asked to be given the opportunity to set out his version of the causes of the current situation and, in this connection, analyzed events from 2014 to the present.

“So the claim that he talked about Slavic history simply does not correspond to reality,” Støre added.

Støre also denies the media outlet’s claim that Putin seized the initiative in the conversation and did not let the Europeans speak. According to him, “we spent approximately the same amount of time.”

The Financial Times editorial office said it does not intend to make changes to its article or comment on the situation: “We stand by our journalistic approach.”

Earlier, after the call, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen accused Støre and Stubb of failing to coordinate the talks with Putin with European allies. Støre responded that all allies and partners had been informed in advance about the conversation.