Former Finnish President Recounts Candid Call with Putin About NATO Membership

Former Finnish President Sauli Niinistö has revealed the details of his 2022 phone call with Vladimir Putin, in which he informed the Russian president that Finland would apply to join NATO. According to Niinistö, Putin remained “surprisingly calm” and remarked that the Finnish leader was making a mistake.

'I Hope You Keep Some Sovereignty Left'

In his new book All Paths to Security (Kaikki tiet turvaan), Niinistö recounts the pivotal moment in May 2022 when he told Putin directly about Finland’s decision to abandon its neutrality and seek NATO membership. Excerpts from the book were published by Yle.

“We always spoke openly, and I felt this too had to be said openly. So I told him that Finland is now joining NATO,” Niinistö writes. Putin, he recalls, responded with composure: “I hope you keep some sovereignty left — the Americans will take military command.” Niinistö replied that he would continue appointing his own generals, to which Putin, he says, smiled and answered, “Aha.”

The former president notes that about a month before Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Biden had asked him whether he could influence Putin, subtly hinting at Finland’s NATO aspirations. “It was as if Biden was implying that I should put pressure on Putin,” Niinistö writes.

The Calm but Defining Conversation

The call between the two leaders took place on May 14, 2022. Niinistö explains that he phoned Putin for an open discussion, as Finland “did not intend to disappear quietly around the corner.” Putin, he recalls, assured him that Russia posed no threat but warned that such a shift in Finland’s foreign policy could negatively affect bilateral relations. The Russian leader also outlined the reasons for Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. Niinistö described the exchange as calm.

Finland formally applied for NATO membership in mid-May 2022, alongside Sweden. It joined the alliance on April 4, 2023, ending decades of neutrality in response to the altered security landscape following Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Putin later called Finland’s decision a “mistake” and a “foolish step,” noting that Moscow would have to establish a new military district along its border with NATO.

Encounters with Trump and Putin’s Gifts

Niinistö also recalls his August 2017 visit to U.S. President Donald Trump during the latter’s first term. Trump, he writes, showed curiosity about Finland’s history, asking why the country was not a NATO member and how it managed to maintain good relations with Russia despite their difficult past.

In another part of the memoir, Niinistö mentions several gifts he received from Putin that gave him and his team pause. Among them was the 1899 book Pro Finlandia, a historical volume containing appeals from twelve nations to Tsar Nicholas II defending Finland’s autonomy.