The Shame

President D.Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin
 shake hands during their one-to-one meeting at the Presidential
Palace in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018.
© Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/Kremlon/Rex via Shutterstock.

Finland’s president warns that EU can be losing out to strongman politics
Our president Sauli Niinisto says rising geopolitical risk should be a wake-up call for bloc.

 It’s difficult to get a seat at the table because it’s a table for the strong and powerful,

he says according to news agency Bloomber/FT.

As he reflects on the new age of strongman politics that has left little space for nations like his own on the world stage, Finland’s president momentarily abandons the understatement for which his country is renowned.

A Cossack takes everything which is Loose, so you have to have a very straight opinion and say it clearly.

To Donald Trump ..according to John Bolton,
on the topic of Mr Putin, Mr Sauli Niinisto cites an old Finnish proverb:

A Cossack takes everything which is Loose, so you have to have a very straight opinion and say it clearly.

Yes, but, mr Bolton, this is confidential discussion within the framework of national security. If its not, there is no such a thing as a national security.

Could it really be true that despite the best diplomatic efforts and political outreach, the occupant of the White House, once considered the most powerful person on the planet, doesn’t know that Finland is an independent country.
Yes, I Think that its a true.
Senior Research Fellow Charly Salonius-Pasternak says to News Now Finland -magazine that if true, the episode is surely more nuanced than it might appear.

Did he say it to John Bolton when he was already in office, at a point where he’s already spoken to Niinistö,

asks Salonius-Pasternak.
Salonius-Pasternak also says that on a positive not the president’s alleged comments are more of a reflection of what we already know about Donald Trump, rather than about Finland’s bilateral relationship with America.