"Angela, please forgive me" Putin apologizes to Merkel after dog incident
Vladimir Putin apologizes to Angela Merkel for a dog incident in 2007, which the former chancellor describes in her recently published memoirs as a demonstration of power by the Russian president.
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- Vladimir Putin has apologized to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel for an incident in 2007.
- He took his Labrador with him to a meeting - despite Merkel's fear of dogs.
- Merkel describes the dog incident in her memoirs, which were published on Tuesday, as a demonstration of power by the Russian president.
Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday. The reason: In 2007, he took his Labrador to a meeting with her.
Putin said that he had not wanted to frighten Merkel when he brought his Labrador to a meeting with her in 2007. The AFP news agency and theMoscow Timesagree.
Merkel writes about her fear of dogs and the tense encounter in her memoir "Freedom - Memories 1954-2021", which was published on Tuesday.
She accused Putin of having brought the pet as a "demonstration of power" and that the Kremlin leader had taken pleasure in her discomfort.
Putin publicly apologizes to Merkel
At a press conference on Thursday in the Kazakh capital Astana, Vladimir Putin said that he had not known that Merkel was afraid of dogs.
"I appeal to her once again through the media and say: 'Angela, please forgive me, I didn't want to cause you any grief'. On the contrary, I wanted to create a favorable atmosphere for our conversation," he added.
He continued: "If you ever come back - and I realize that's unlikely - I will never do it again under any circumstances."
There are also pictures of the meeting in 2007. Putin's black Labrador retriever named Konni sniffs around while Merkel sits in the chair, smiling nervously.
Kremlin knew about Merkel's fear
Putin received the Labrador as a gift from Sergei Shoigu, who later became Russia's defense minister. Knowing this, Merkel's team expressly asked the Kremlin at the time that Putin should not bring his dog to their meetings, the former chancellor now writes in her biography.
At the very first meeting between Merkel and Putin in 2006, he respected this request and gave her a gift instead: a black and white plush dog.
Vladimir Putin told her that it would not bite and she "put a good face on it", Angela Merkel continued.
