During his visit to Kazakhstan, Vladimir Putin addressed former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The Russian President publicly apologized to her for the incident that happened 17 years ago.
Recently, 70-year-old Merkel published her memoirs. In the book, the politician recalled an incident that took place in Sochi in 2007, TASS reports.
Then the German Chancellor came to Russia to hold talks with Putin. The event took place at the presidential residence.
During the photo shoot, a Labrador named Connie ran into the room.
Putin found this moment funny, but Merkel was scared. It turned out that the German Chancellor is afraid of dogs and gets nervous when they are nearby.
“Angela, please forgive me, I did not want to cause you any emotional pain, on the contrary, I wanted to create a favorable atmosphere for our conversation,” Putin addressed Merkel on November 28 during a working trip to Kazakhstan.
The president added that he would be happy to welcome Merkel again if she wanted to visit Russia, and added that this time he would make sure that no dogs were allowed near her.
Putin believed that this incident had deeply affected Merkel, since she decided to talk about it in her memoirs.
At the same time, he emphasized that he was not trying to exert psychological influence on his interlocutor in this way.
For reference
Angela Merkel is a German politician, physical chemist, and doctor of natural sciences.
Author: Dmitry Bobrov
