Berlin:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Russia’s Vladimir Putin that Moscow and Berlin must speak regardless of “deep differences”, in her final working pay a visit to to Russia prior to 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 physicians.
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 prior to the talks at the Kremlin.
“We have a lot to talk about,” she added, naming a number of difficulties on their agenda, like the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
They are also anticipated to go over 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 mentioned he hoped the pay a visit to 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 following tests in European laboratories showed Navalny was poisoned utilizing the Novichok chemical weapon, and has named for his release. Putin denies any involvement.
Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert mentioned the attack had place a “heavy burden” on relations in between the two nations.
“Our demands have still not been met,” Seibert mentioned earlier this week, adding that the case was nevertheless “unresolved”.
French President Emmanuel Macron named on Putin to release Navalny on the eve of Merkel’s pay a visit to in a phone get in touch with with the Russian leader, according to the Elysee.
The chancellor will travel to Russia’s rival Ukraine following going to the Kremlin chief, who infrequently receives Western guests in Moscow.
Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany, and Putin, a former KGB agent stationed there, speak every single other’s languages.
During the chancellor’s 16 years in energy, the pair normally kept a dialogue regardless of strained relations, dampened by difficulties ranging from alleged cyberattacks to the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.
‘Wrongly’ imprisoned
Merkel visited Navalny when he was treated at the Charite hospital in Berlin following the close to-fatal poisoning.
Navalny is now held in a maximum safety prison colony in Pokrov, one hundred kilometres (60 miles) east of Moscow.
This month he was charged with new crimes that could prolong his jail time by 3 years. If discovered guilty, he could only be released following 2024, the year Russia is scheduled to hold a presidential election.
Seibert mentioned Navalny had been “wrongly” imprisoned.
In a message from prison posted on his Instagram by his group Friday, Navalny mentioned the 20th of August — when he believed “he died” following losing consciousness on a flight more than Siberia — was his “second birthday”.
He thanked his supporters for calling for him to be taken out of Russia for therapy.
“Thanks to you I survived and landed in prison,” he joked, adding “sorry, I could not help myself”.
Amnesty International named Navalny’s poisoning an “outrageous crime” that Russia must have urgently investigated.
“Instead, the Russian government chose to throw Navalny behind bars on false grounds,” it mentioned in a statement on Friday.
The 45-year-old’s movement has faced unprecedented stress ahead of September parliamentary polls in Russia, in which Putin’s United Russia party is anticipated to struggle.
Navalny has named on Russians from prison to sabotage the September election with his technique of “Smart Voting”, that encourages voters to back candidates finest placed to defeat Kremlin-linked politicians.
The German leader is anticipated to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Sunday, as tensions continue more than Moscow’s troop create-up on Ukraine’s borders.
Germany has been a big player in efforts to broker peace in eastern Ukraine.
Merkel may well also seek to provide Ukraine with assurances more than Nord Stream 2, the controversial gas pipeline set to double organic gas supplies from Russia to Germany.
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