{"id":1405,"date":"2026-02-06T16:51:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/1405\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T16:51:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:51:07","slug":"media-sauli-niinisto-considered-for-eu-russia-envoy-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/1405\/","title":{"rendered":"Media: Sauli Niinist\u00f6 considered for EU Russia envoy role"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Finnish president Sauli Niinist\u00f6 is being considered for a new European Union special envoy role tasked with reopening dialogue with Russian president Vladimir Putin, according to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The paper reported that the idea was discussed on Thursday in Paris during talks between French president Emmanuel Macron, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, and European Council president Ant\u00f3nio Costa.<\/p>\n

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The proposed role would aim to restore a direct political channel between the EU and the Kremlin as efforts continue to end Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine. According to La Repubblica, concern has grown in European capitals that contacts with Moscow risk becoming dependent on the United States alone.<\/p>\n

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La Repubblica reported that EU leaders want a figure with sufficient political weight to engage directly with Putin. Niinist\u00f6 has emerged as the leading candidate, ahead of other names discussed in Paris.<\/p>\n

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The newspaper said former German chancellor Angela Merkel and former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi have also been mentioned. Merkel\u2019s prospects are seen as weaker due to criticism of her past approach to Russian gas policy. Draghi is currently involved in work on an EU plan focused on competitiveness, which could limit his availability.<\/p>\n

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According to La Repubblica, Niinist\u00f6\u2019s long experience in security policy, his background in defence matters, and Finland\u2019s historical management of relations with Moscow are viewed as key assets. The paper also cited his reported command of the Russian language.<\/p>\n

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Niinist\u00f6 served as the president of Finland from 2012 to 2024 and was closely involved in shaping Finland\u2019s security policy during Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Niinist\u00f6 has publicly argued that Europe should maintain direct dialogue with Russia.<\/p>\n

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Helsingin Sanomat<\/a> first reported the information in Finland.<\/p>\n

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HT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Finnish president Sauli Niinist\u00f6 is being considered for a new European Union special envoy role tasked with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[87],"tags":[230,1889,1885,158,113,1886,1884,1888,1887],"class_list":["post-1405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-helsinki","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-eu-diplomacy","tag-eu-special-envoy","tag-finland","tag-helsinki","tag-russia-relations","tag-sauli-niinisto","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","tag-vladimir-putin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}