Putin on his toes: “Sorry, if I'd known I wouldn't have done it...”
In her memoirs, Angela Merkel recounts her meeting with the Russian president. At the time, in Sochi in 2007, the head of the Kremlin showed up with a big black Labrador... The Chancellor was terrified of dogs.
In her book, entitled “Freedom”, Angela Merkel explains that, in her view, the event strongly resembled a “demonstration of power”. She asserts that Vladimir Putin “relished the situation” and wanted to “show his power” or “put her under pressure”.
17 years later, during a trip to Kazakhstan, the Russian president apologized to the former German chancellor. “As I told Merkel, I didn't know she was afraid of dogs,” the Russian leader assured. "If I had known, I would never have done it. On the contrary, I wanted to create a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. I'll say it again: Angela, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."
According to Merkel, the Kremlin leader was well aware of her phobia and the effect the Labrador would have on her. As reported in La Dépêche, the former German Chancellor's teams had made it clear to the Kremlin that he was not to bring his dogs to meetings.
(MH with Manon Pierre - Source : La Dépêche - Picture : Picture by tatarstan.ru via WikiCommons under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license)