Skip to playerSkip to main content
Russian President Vladimir Putin apologised to former German chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday, saying he did not mean to scare her when he brought his pet Labrador to a meeting with her in 2007.

Merkel, in her memoirs Freedom, recounts the meeting at Putin's Sochi residence, where the dog entered during a photo session. She described Putin's apparent amusement but chose not to address it, adhering to her principle of "never explain, never complain."

#Putin #Merkel #Dogs
Transcript
00:00Angel, please, forgive me. I didn't want to cause you any mental pain.
00:06On the contrary, I wanted to create a pleasant atmosphere for our conversation.
00:12I apologize. If you ever come again, I understand that this is unlikely today,
00:19but if you ever come again, I will not do this at all.
00:24Mrs. Merkel came to visit us, and my dog, Konya, came out.
00:33Frankly speaking, I already told her about it, that I didn't know that she was afraid of dogs.
00:40If I knew, I would never have done it.
00:42On the contrary, I wanted to create such a pleasant atmosphere.
00:49As far as I know, I have lived in Europe and Germany for almost 5 years.
00:56I treat pets very positively. On the contrary, I thought that she would be pleased.
01:02I later found out that she was afraid of dogs.
01:05It happens, as far as I remember, she told me that she bit a dog as a child.
01:11Such psychological trauma happens.
01:14When I found out about it, I apologized to her.
01:17I said, I'm sorry, I didn't know about it.
01:20She wrote about it in her book.
01:27To be honest, it was strange and unexpected for me.
Comments

Recommended