Russia's president says he did not want to cause the then German Chancellor discomfort with his Labrador Koni when the two leaders met in Sochi 17 years ago.
I appeal to her once again through the media and say: Angela, please forgive me, I did not want to make you nervous. On the contrary, I wanted to create a positive atmosphere for our conversation, says Putin according to several media outlets at a press conference in Astana, Kazakhstan.
He claims that he did not know that Merkel was afraid of dogs, which she denies in her newly published autobiography "Freedom". About the meeting in 2007, she writes that she tried to ignore the dog.
"I interpreted Putin's facial expressions as him finding pleasure in the situation. Did he simply want to see how a person reacts when they are intimidated? Was it a small demonstration of power? The only thing I thought was: Stay calm, focus on the photographers, it's almost over", writes Merkel.
Putin now claims that he has learned his lesson in case of a new meeting.
If you ever, and I realize it's unlikely, come back here, I will not under any circumstances do it again, he says in Astana.
This is not the first time Vladimir Putin has apologized to Merkel. Eight years ago, in 2016, he told the newspaper Bild that he just "wanted to do something nice".
