There have been times when Finnish leaders used the sauna for more direct diplomacy. In the 1960s, Finland"s Cold War leader - Urho Kekkonen - took the then President of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev into an all-night sauna and persuaded him to allow Finland to integrate with the West. In 2005, when Vladimir Putin visited Helsinki, he had a sauna with the husband of the Finnish president, Tarja Halonen, and described it as "a wonderful experience".