Putin explains old dog drama with Merkel after her new book comes out

Vladimir Putin tried to clear-up a weird diplomatic moment from almost 17 years ago when his black lab scared Angela Merkel (the incident happened back in 07). At a press-conference this thursday he said he didnt know about her fear of dogs

The story starts in 06 when Merkel visited Moscow and got a stuffed toy-dog from Putin; he said it wouldnt bite. Next year in Sochi things got awkward – his real black lab Koni walked right up to the un-comfortable chancellor while cameras were rolling

I tried to ignore the dog even though he was moving more or less right next to me; I interpreted Putins facial expressions as him enjoying the situation

The ex-chancellor thinks it mightʼve been a power-play but Putin now says its all a mis-understanding: “If Iʼd known I would never have done it“. He even made a direct statement to her: “Angela please forgive me I didnt want to cause you any distress“

In her book Merkel describes how she dealt with the situation:

• Stayed focused on photographers
• Tried not to pay attention to the dog
• Kept herself under control
• Waited for it to end

The whole thing started because Merkelʼs team asked Putinʼs staff (before that Moscow visit) not to bring out any dogs; which he respected that time but not during their next meet-up