Finland was the last country to fight a conventional war against the Soviet Union before its collapse in 1991 A phone call to Vladimir Putin on Tuesday by the leaders of Norway and Finland was made by strong states seeking to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine, rather than signaling a rift within the Western alliance, a political analyst has told TVP World. Finnish President Alexander Stubb and the prime minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre, broke with a long-standing Western European practice of non-engagement with the Kremlin. But the risk was worth taking if there was any chance of a ceasefire, Wojciech Przybylski, editor-in-chief of the Warsaw-based Visegrad Insight policy and current affairs publication said. Przybylski argued that "European leaders cannot also stop at least trying to set the terms on which a ceasefire, a potential peace, would be brokered,” and for that, “we need to be engaged in any effort there is. We cannot be a silent party.” He said that as the last country to fight a conventional war with the Soviet Union prior to its 1991 collapse, Finland is in a unique position in talking to Russia and “has demonstrated to Moscow that it will not yield.” “I would be having more doubts if a weak leader... was calling Putin,” Przybylski said of Stubb. “That is a leader that I am much more comfortable having a phone call with Putin.”
