James reports on Germany and European defence. He has previously been a Foreign News Reporter, Brexit Correspondent, and Middle East Correspondent in Jerusalem 2:30pm GMT The leaders of Finland and Norway were subjected to a 90-minute history lesson during a phone call with Vladimir Putin.

Putin reportedly spent the vast majority of the phone call with Alexander Stubb, the Finnish president, and Jonas Gahr Støre, the Norwegian prime minister, discussing “medieval Slavic history”, sources told the Financial Times (FT).

The call had been a controversial attempt to begin fresh Russia-Ukraine peace talks.

“Vladimir Putin used most of his call with the leaders of Finland and Norway to lecture them about medieval Slavic history, underscoring the difficulties Europe faces in asserting itself in upcoming peace talks with Russia,” one source with knowledge of the conversation told the FT.

The sources added that the conversation lasted for 90 minutes despite only being scheduled to take half an hour, and amounted to a lecture on the historical causes of the current war.

Alexander Stubb is facing criticism from European Nato allies for speaking directly with Putin There was barely any meaningful discussion about an immediate ceasefire, which is likely to be a key demand from Ukraine should a fresh round of peace talks begin.

It is the latest sign that Russia appears to have little interest in serious talks about ending the war in Ukraine, which has lasted for four years and eight months.

Mr Støre and Mr Stubb are also facing criticism from European Nato allies for speaking directly with Putin, something that has largely been taboo since the Russian leader launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, has said she is “very sceptical of this Norwegian and Finnish initiative”, adding: “I think Europe should stick together rather than going solo.”Ulf Kristersson, the Swedish prime minister, has disclosed that he and other European leaders were not informed about the talks.

However, Andrii Sybiha, the Ukrainian foreign minister, has confirmed that the phone call was co-ordinated with his government, describing it as the “right approach” to engage with Putin.

A Kremlin statement about the phone call suggested that the Russian president had tried to argue that Nato’s eastward expansion and Ukraine’s pro-Western government had been key factors in the outbreak of war.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Jonas Gahr Store and Mr Stubb attend a press conference in Oslo, Norway, last week Putin also “stressed that a fair long-term peace settlement is possible only if Russia’s legal interests are taken into account fully and unconditionally”, the Kremlin said.

The phone call has echoes of Donald Trump’s August 2025 summit with Russia, which also descended into a rambling history lecture.

Mr Trump had called the summit in the hope of securing a quick peace deal for Ukraine, having pledged in his re-election campaign to end the war in 24 hours. Instead, the US president found himself on the receiving end of a diatribe about medieval princes, such as Rurik of Novgorod and Yaroslav the Wise.

Putin also gave a monologue on the 17th century Cossack chieftain Bohdan Khmelnytsky, which, according to The Irish Times, annoyed Mr Trump so much that he threatened to leave the meeting.

The Russian president believes that all three historical figures support a narrative in which Ukraine is a mere province of Russia.

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, was subjected to a similar experience when he visited Putin in February 2022, prior to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Macron was also required to sit at the far end of a long table with Putin, apparently because of fears that he might give the Russian leader Covid.