Moscow and Washington’s relationship now sits at its lowest point since the Cold War. The war in Ukraine and Moscow’s intervention in Syria have seen relations deteriorate rapidly, which have been further scarred by Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain that sparked massive diplomatic expulsions, and the looming shadow of Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigations into connections between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. Adding to the intrigue ahead of the summit is concerns about Trump himself, who first raised meeting Putin during a congratulatory phone call in March. Anxiety has grown in European capitals that Trump’s eager-to-please attitude toward Putin could undo efforts among allies to isolate Russia for its destabilizing activities across the continent. All this has led the White House to lower expectations for the talks, with Trump’s national-security adviser John Bolton telling reporters in Moscow on Wednesday that he did not anticipate any specific outcomes from the summit. “The fact that the summit will take place in Helsinki is very positive for Finland,” Himanen said, “but it needs to be clear that we are not as we were in the Cold War.”

While the upcoming summit harkens back to Finland’s roots as a Cold War–era meeting point between East and West, its government is keen to show the world that, today, the country stands firmly with the West. “This is perhaps the single greatest issue for Finland in organizing this,” Charly Salonius-Pasternak, a senior research fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, told me. “This summit should be a way for the world to recognize how Finland has changed and that the old lines about neutrality are gone.”

At first glance, such distinctions might not seem entirely clear or necessary. In step with his predecessors, Sauli Niinistö, the president of Finland, has pushed for dialogue between the American and Russian presidents as tensions have escalated in recent years. In September 2017, Helsinki welcomed American and Russian diplomats for talks and also brought together top military advisors from the two countries in June. Niinistö has likewise cultivated relations with Putin and regularly met with his Russian counterpart despite the wider chill with the West. But the Finnish president has also deepened ties with Washington, meeting Trump in August 2017 and diligently enforcing European sanctions against Moscow. Finland, along with fellow non-NATO member Sweden, has also moved closer to the alliance in recent years as Moscow has flexed its military muscles around the Baltic Sea. “We aren’t a bridge to Russia, but maybe we can be a looking glass,” Salonius-Pasternak said. “You can still have a working relationship with Russia and not be blind about them.”