Russian President Vladimir Putin has apologised to former German chancellor Angela Merkel, saying that he did not mean to scare her when he brought his pet Labrador to a meeting with her in 2007.
Merkel, who has a well-documented fear of the animals, recalled the tense encounter in her memoir released on Tuesday, accusing Putin of inviting the pet as a “demonstration of power” and taking glee in her discomfort.
“I did not know that she was afraid of dogs,” the Kremlin chief said yesterday at a press conference in the Kazakh capital Astana.
“I once again appeal to her via the media and say: ‘Angela, please forgive me, I did not want to cause you any heartache.’ On the contrary, I wanted to create a favourable atmosphere for our conversation,” he added.
“If you ever – I realise it is unlikely – come again, I will not do it under any circumstances,” Putin said.
Putin is known to be fond of dogs and has received them from visiting dignitaries on multiple occasions.
He received Konni as a gift from Sergei Shoigu, who later became his defence minister.
Images from their 2007 meeting in the Russian city of Sochi showed Putin’s black Labrador Retriever Konni sniffing around while the German leader sat in her chair, smiling nervously.
Merkel said of the 2007 encounter in her memoir: “I could tell from Putin’s facial expressions that he was enjoying the situation.”
Merkel wrote in her new memoir Freedom that, knowing Putin sometimes brought the pet to meetings with foreign guests, she had asked an aide the previous year to request Putin’s team not to bring out Konni in her presence because she was afraid of dogs.
When they met in Moscow in 2006, she said, Putin respected the request but presented her with a large stuffed dog, remarking that it didn’t bite.
However, at the encounter in Sochi the following year, the large dog wandered around the room and walked right up to Merkel while the chancellor, visibly uncomfortable, sat alongside Putin in front of photographers and TV cameras.
In her book, the retired chancellor described the incident as an ordeal.
“I tried to ignore the dog, even though he was moving more or less right next to me. I interpreted Putin’s facial expressions as him enjoying the situation,” she wrote. “Did he just want to see how a person reacts in distress? Was it a small demonstration of power? I just thought: stay calm, concentrate on the photographers, it will pass.”
