“When youve had 1340 kilometres of border with Russia throughout your history, I think youve picked up lessons over the years,” he said.
“In terms of security, especially this regime and Putin will stop at nothing. So I think the lesson that we draw from this is that Finland should join NATO.”
Asked whether Putin had changed since he last met him, he said: “I think the Western media is sort of going over the top and over the moon on this.
“Theres a lot of sort of psychoanalysis from far away.
“But what the Western media doesnt understand is the psyche of a Russian leader, the psyche of a Russian leaders to promote Great Russia, historic Russia, not his stated goal as going back to the 1800s, which basically means taking over Belarus, and Ukraine. And for him, Great Russia or making Russia great again, its about three things: one language, Russian, one religion, Orthodox, and one leader, him.
“He wants to prevent Ukraine being Europeanised. That is why hes doing what hes doing. From our perspective, it doesnt seem rational, but from his perspective, it is rational.”
Listen to Alexander Stubbs interview in full on Times Radio.
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