Putin called on NATO to urgently launch talks on Russian security issues

Russian President Vladimir Putin during a telephone conversation with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto called on the United States and NATO to hold talks on security issues in Russia. During their conversation, the two leaders paid special attention to issues related to the crisis in southeastern Ukraine. Vladimir Putin once again stressed the need to urgently launch negotiations with the United States and NATO to work out international legal guarantees for our country's security, ruling out further advances of the alliance to the east and the placement of weapons systems threatening Russia on the territory of Ukraine and other neighboring countries. See more at Kommersant english version. According to Vladimir Putin, this is fully consistent with the principle of the indivisibility of security, as enshrined in the Helsinki Final Act of 1975 and the Istanbul Charter of 1999. In this regard, the Russian President supported the initiative of Sauli Niinisto to organize a summit on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe to be held in 2025. Vladimir Putin also informed Mr Niinistö of the results of negotiations with US President Joseph Biden. The Russian president called on the Ukrainian side to comply with the Minsk agreements. According to him, the Ukrainian authorities, in violation of the agreements, "increasingly clearly rely on forceful methods" and use heavy weapons and drones in Donbas. In addition, the two leaders discussed issues on the bilateral agenda, agreed to continue cooperation between Russia and Finland, including in the trade and economic sphere, and emphasized the importance of further cooperation in regional affairs, including in the north and the Arctic.