After three years in which Western capitals largely severed official contacts with Moscow, the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, has called for Europe to begin its own direct diplomatic engagement with Russia. In an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Stubb argued that the continent cannot afford to outsource its Russia policy to Washington, particularly if the trajectory of American strategy under a possible second Trump administration runs counter to European security interests. “It is time to start talking to Russia,” he said, while acknowledging that the timing and format remain unsettled among European leaders.

Stubb’s intervention reflects a growing unease in European capitals about the direction of US policy. Viewed from Helsinki, the risk is that Washington might pursue a settlement with Moscow that locks in territorial concessions from Kyiv without addressing Europe’s broader security architecture. The Finnish president explicitly raised the need for a parallel European track, one that would be coordinated among Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Britain, and the Nordic-Baltic states—an arc of countries that share a land border with Russia or consider themselves in the frontline of a revived Kremlin assertiveness.

Yet the idea of resuming dialogue with Moscow has not been universally welcomed, nor is it new in its proponents’ frustration. Glenn Diesen, a professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway, noted on social media that the European political class had spent years boycotting diplomacy, censoring those who advocated for talks, and now finds itself scrambling to catch up. In his view, the delay has pushed the world closer to nuclear brinkmanship—a characterisation that, while stark, captures the impatience of a minority of analysts who have long argued that isolating Russia only hardened its position.

In Berlin, meanwhile, the governing coalition has discussed whether President Frank-Walter Steinmeier might be a suitable mediator in any future EU-Russia negotiations. Steinmeier, a former foreign minister with deep experience of the Ostpolitik tradition, would symbolise a return to the dialogue-heavy approach that prevailed before 2014. But analysts in London note that any European initiative would have to navigate deep internal divisions: the Baltic states and Poland remain deeply suspicious of negotiations without a prior Russian withdrawal from Ukraine, while France and Germany are more open to exploring interim arrangements.

Looking ahead, Stubb’s call may prove a watershed or merely a straw in the wind, depending on two variables. The first is whether Moscow responds with any substantive signal of flexibility—something it has so far withheld. The second is the reaction in Washington, where the incoming administration’s envoy for Ukraine is already drafting a plan that could bypass European input altogether. For Europe, the challenge is not just to start talking to Russia, but to define what it wants from that conversation before others define it for them.