Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday denied he used his pet dog, Koni, to ‘frighten’ the then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2007, and said he had already apologized to her, the media reported on Friday.
When they met in Moscow in 2006, she said, Putin respected the request to keep the dog off, but gifted her with a large stuffed dog, remarking that it didn’t bite.
However, when she met him in 2007 in Sochi, a large dog wandered around the room and walked right up to Merkel, causing discomfort to the then-German Chancellor. It made her visibly uncomfortable, sitting alongside Putin in front of photographers and TV cameras.
In her new memoir “Freedom,” Merkel revealed that she had asked an aide to request President Putin not to bring Koni to their meetings, as she was afraid of dogs.
President Putin denied on Thursday that he had deliberately used his black labrador Koni to intimidate Merkel at a 2007 meeting that became a notorious diplomatic incident.
Merkel wrote that knowing Putin sometimes brought the pet to meetings with foreign guests, she had asked an aide the previous year to request the Russian President’s team not to bring out Koni in her presence because she was afraid of dogs.
But at the encounter in Sochi the following year, it happened again.
Asked about the incident on Thursday, Putin denied he was aware of Merkel’s canine phobia and said he had later apologized to her.
“Frankly, I’ve already told Merkel, I didn’t know she was afraid of dogs. If I’d known, I would never have done it. On the contrary, I wanted to create a relaxed, pleasant atmosphere,” he told a press conference.
Russian reporters smirked as Putin issued a fulsome new apology to Merkel and said that, in the unlikely event she was to pay another visit, he “absolutely won’t do it again.”
“I appeal to her again and say: Angela, please forgive me. I didn’t want to cause you any distress,” he said.
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.”