At the end of May 2025, Vladimir Putin publicly accused Alexander Stubba of deceit: he allegedly promised Donald Trump to supply ships that could not build in Finland. We checked whether the President of the Russian Federation is right.
On May 25, on the day of Russian entrepreneurship, Vladimir Putin met with representatives of Russian business circles. It has a Russian president on it declared: “We must proceed from realities. You have now talked about your participation in the construction of nuclear icebreakers, including the Leader icebreaker, an analogue of which does not exist in the world. Nobody does this at all. Apparently, Mr. [Alexander] Stubb, the current president of Finland, spoke in the United States that they would build atomic icebreakers in the United States. Can they build at least one atomic icebreaker, Finland today? <...> I also think, unlikely, of course. Nevertheless, he shoves his products. Already in the States they say: "We will build nuclear icebreakers in Finland." What is there? Shipbuilding in Finland developed well on Soviet and Russian orders at one time. But nuclear icebreakers, especially such as the "leader", and what we are now handing over, they never built. This is a completely separate topic, a technological school. Here, atomic reactors of small size should be, and indeed the ship is completely different, the materials corresponding to and so on. They simply do not have such experience. No, nevertheless, pushing it. Deceiving, in fact. "
Putin's statement was quoted "News","Arguments and facts","Komsomolskaya Truth","Gazeta.ru" Lenta.ru, "Reginum"And other Russian media. “Air sellers: Russia revealed Finland's deception with atomic icebreakers,” the news presented the news under such a headline "Truth.ru".
In 2018, NBC News journalists They wroteThat the American authorities, despite the calls of experts, have paid for years in insufficient attention to the US icebreaker. The first significant efforts to build up on the presidency of Barack Obama and gained momentum already in the first term of Donald Trump. In the summer of 2020 he released Memorandum in which He ordered Until the end of the decade, build an icebreaker fleet and base to uphold the interests of the United States in the Arctic and Antarctic. During his second presidential term, March 13, 2025, Trump declaredthat the United States plan to order 48 new icebreakers. This, according to the politician, It will help To strengthen the US position in the Arctic, "since this whole region becomes very important."
A little more than two weeks later, March 29, Trump Published In his social network Truth Social, a joint photo with Stubb, who flew to Florida with an unofficial visit. In the signature, the American president indicated that he had agreed with the Finnish colleague to supply icebreakers, but in the post it was not specified that the ships would be atomic:
“Just played the party in golf with Alexander Stubb, President of Finland. He is a very good player, and we won the men's tournament among the teams and guests of the Trump International golf club in Palm Beach County along with the legendary [South African golf] Gary Plier, Senator Lindsay Graham And the former congressman and successful TV presenter Godya. President Stubb and I hope to strengthen partnership between the United States and Finland, which includes a purchase and Development of a large number of icebreakers extremely necessary for the United Statesproviding peace and international security for our countries and the entire planet. The President of Stubb told me in the most powerful expressions that the United States is strong and again in the ranks. I AGREE!"
However, the partnership of the United States and Finland in the field of icebreaker construction was known earlier. For example, on July 11, 2024, Stubb, previous US President Joe Biden and then held the post of Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau released A joint statement of cooperation in the production of the "best icebreakers in their class." Four months later, November 11, the President of Finland Spent A telephone conversation with Trump, congratulated him on a victory in a recent election and discussed with the elected American president, including “icebreaking cooperation between Finland, the USA and Canada”. Neither in the July statement, nor in the press releases about the November conversation, it was not specified that the Finnish icebreakers would be atomic.
Talking about the meeting of Trump and Stubba in March 2025, Reuters reportedthat Finland is a leading manufacturer of icebreakers in the world. According to the agency, about 80% of such courts are designed by Finnish companies, and about 60% of them were built on Finnish shipyards. Similar statistics She shared The Wall Street Journal: “This Northern Country, which has extensive experience on the Baltic Sea, has built and designed more icebreakers than any other state.” The article also shows the words of Stubba: “What can Finland offer the United States? Firstly, icebreakers. We build them faster than anyone in the world, and about two times cheaper. ”
Russia is also engaged in the construction of icebreakers and, reallycontrols The only one In the world of icebreaker fleet on atomic energy. In recent years, Rosatom also He led Development of such ships working on liquefied natural gas (LNG). In 2021 reportedthat the state corporation plans to order the construction of several such icebreakers. At the same time, in Finland, back in 2016, he was built Polaris - The world's first icebreaker, equipped with two -fuel engines that are able to use both low -hearted ship diesel fuel and LNG.
Thus, Putin distributed misinformation, since Stubb never publicly promised Trump for supplying atomic icebreakers. In the statements of the Finnish and American presidents, it was not stipulated on what kind of fuel the Finnish vessels built for the United States would work.
Photo on the cover: Kremlin.ru / @realdonaldtrump (Truth Social) / Collage "Checked"
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