Putin to former German Chancellor Merkel: Angela, please forgive me, I'm sorry

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel recalled in her book how Putin's dog entered the room during her meeting with Putin in Sochi, although it was known that she had fear of dogs. The Russian president apologized for the incident once again.

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org by press service of the President of Russia, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Angela Merkel

Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking to journalists in Astana, Kazakhstan, apologized once again to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the 2007 episode with his dog, Labrador Connie.

Angela Merkel wrote in her memoirs that during a meeting with the Russian president in Sochi, his dog walked in at the moment when they were taking photos. German officials had warned their counterparts in Russia that Merkel was afraid of canines.

"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 said noting that he had no knowledge about Merkel's fear of dogs.

"I had lived in Germany for five years, and I know that people in Germany are very positive when it comes to home pets. I thought that she would be pleased. I later found out that she was afraid of dogs. It happens, I remember she said once that a dog had bitten her in her childhood. Such psychological traumas may happen indeed. When I learned about it, I apologized to her.

Putin also denied Merkel's allegations about his intention to scare or make the Chancellor feel uncomfortable in any way during her visit to Sochi.

The incident happened in 2007 in Sochi during Merkel's visit to Russia. During the negotiations between the Russian and German leaders, Putin's Labrador named Connie entered the room.

"I tried to ignore the dog, although he was quite close. I thought Putin's expression was that he liked the situation. Did he just want to see how a person reacts in trouble? Was it some kind of show of force? I just thought: stay calm, focus on photographers, this will pass," Merkel wrote. In 2016, Putin told Bild that he apologized for the Connie incident.