German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Russia’s Vladimir Putin that Moscow and Berlin should talk despite “deep differences”, in her final working visit to Russia before stepping down as leader next month.
Merkel’s trip to Moscow coincides with the anniversary of a nerve-agent attack on now-jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, whose life was saved by Berlin doctors.
Her aides have made clear that the timing of the meeting is not accidental.
Even if we have deep disagreements, we are talking to one another and it should stay that way,” Merkel told Putin in a televised exchange before the talks at the Kremlin.
“We have a lot to talk about,” she added, naming several issues on their agenda, including the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
They are also expected to discuss the simmering conflict in eastern Ukraine and the authoritarian crackdown in Russia-allied Belarus.
Putin greeted Merkel with flowers, a gesture he reserves for female leaders, and said he hoped the visit will not only be a “farewell” one, but a “serious one”.
Merkel, who will bow out of politics following German elections on September 26, did not mention Navalny in her opening comments.
She has blamed the attack on the Kremlin after tests in European laboratories showed Navalny was poisoned using the Novichok chemical weapon, and has called for his release. Putin denies any involvement.
Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said the attack had put a “heavy burden” on relations between the two countries.
“Our demands have still not been met,” Seibert said earlier this week, adding that the case was still “unresolved”.
French President Emmanuel Macron called on Putin to release Navalny on the eve of Merkel’s visit in a phone call with the Russian leader, according to the Elysee.
The chancellor will travel to Russia’s rival Ukraine after visiting the Kremlin chief, who infrequently receives Western visitors in Moscow.
Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany, and Putin, a former KGB agent stationed there, speak each other’s languages.
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