As the threat of a new Russian invasion of Ukraine grew, the European head of state with the greatest and deepest experience in dealing with Vladimir Putin had telephone conversations and gave advice to the President of France Emanuel Macron and to other world leaders who desperately sought knowledge of the “difficult neighbor to the east.”
According to the New York Times, Jason Horowitz, political analyst and director of the NYT’s Rome-based office for Italy, Greece and Southern Europe, Φινλανδίας Sauli Niinisto is more than just a messenger. He is the man trusted by foreign leaders in Russia, but also the one who has a great deal of knowledge of the West’s important partner, the Vladimir Putin.
“What do you think about this for this, what for this, or this” ?. “I try to be useful there,” said the Finnish president, as the harsh light from the snow and icy bay pours into the presidential residence. “They know I know Putin,” he added. “And because the situation is often reversed, Putin sometimes says to me, ‘Well, why don’t you tell your Western friends this and that?'”
The 73-year-old Mr. Ninisto said that his role was not just that of the Scandinavian runner, who carries messages between East and West, but of the border interpreter, explaining on both sides the reasoning of the other. The departure of Angela Merkel’s policy, which for years led Germany’s negotiations with Putin as Chancellor of Germany, has made Mr Ninisto’s role vital, even though he is younger, especially now that the drums of the war between Ukraine and Russia are getting louder.
“Putin seems determined, he wants to take advantage of the momentum in Ukraine”
As Jason Horowitz writes, Mr. Niinisto is not optimistic. “Before and after his last long conversation with Mr Putin last month, he said he had noticed a change in the Russian president’s mentality: ‘His mental state and his determination are clearly different,'” Mr Ninisto said. He believes that Mr. Putin felt that he had to take advantage of “the momentum and momentum he has now.”
He said it was hard to imagine things would return to normal. Opposing parties challenged the Minsk agreement, which the Russians insisted on. The other options are summed up in the fact that Russia is pushing Europe and withdrawing demands from the United States for the immediate future or, as he said, “just war”.
Such a simple speech made Mr. Niinisto, in the fifth year of his second six-year term, extremely popular in Finland. Some compare him to Urgo Kekonen, who came to power in 1956 and ruled Finland for 25 years, during the so-called Cold War Finland.
Mr Ninisto tossed in 90% of the country’s acceptance rate and dismissed it as “excessive”, as he described it as a kind of Putin’s courtier. “It’s an exaggeration to say that somehow I know more about Putin or his thinking,” he said. He is clearly skeptical about breaking up a relationship he has cultivated for a decade, including many meetings, countless phone calls and an ice hockey game. Asked who was better, he replied diplomatically, “I played my whole life.”
However, he pointed out some specific benefits. After gaining Merkel’s support, he said he asked in 2020 if Mr Putin would let Navani, the Russian opposition leader who is accused by Russian agents of poisoning him, be taken to Germany for medical treatment. Mr Navalny’s office later thanked Mr Niinisto.
The man Europeans call to see how Putin thinks
“He’s a good person to call when you want to know what’s going on in the northeastern corner of Europe, and especially if you want to understand President Putin’s thinking,” said Alexander Stump, a former prime minister and foreign minister who has accompanied Mr Ninisto. in meetings with Mr. Putin. “He is excellent at how he manages power games and finds the right balance.”
Mr Ninisto draws his strength from a crucial national security meeting he is chairing and from the Constitution, which states that foreign policy is “led by the president of the republic in co-operation with the government”.
Source: News Beast
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