German Chancellor Angela Merkel travelled to Russia Friday to discuss the crisis in Afghanistan, the separatist conflict in Ukraine and Moscow’s treatment of imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, among other issues.
Merkel’s visit to Moscow comes as she is nearing the end of her almost 16-year-long leadership of Germany. Despite sharp differences, she has maintained close contacts with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been in power for more than two decades.
“Even though we certainly have deep differences today, we speak to each other -- and that should continue to happen,” Merkel said as she sat down for talks with Putin in the Kremlin.
She said Libya, Afghanistan, bilateral and trade relations and civil society issues would feature in Friday’s talks.
Putin noted the importance of ties with Germany and hailed Merkel’s role in developing them. “Germany is one of our key partners in Europe and the entire world thanks to your efforts over the past 16 years,” he said.
Before the talks, Merkel laid flowers at the Unknown Soldier’s Tomb near the Kremlin wall to honour the Soviet victims of World War II.
High on the agenda of Friday’s talks is the situation in eastern Ukraine. Germany and France have sought to help broker a peaceful settlement to end the fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists that has killed more than 14,000 since 2014.
Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert said earlier this week that “Russia could do much more” to help the settlement.
Merkel plans to travel back to Berlin on Friday night and head to Kyiv on Sunday to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Seibert noted that Friday’s talks will also touch on the situation in Russia’s ally Belarus, where authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has unleashed a sweeping crackdown on dissent. That followed protests against his re-election for a sixth term in an August 2020 vote which the opposition and the West denounced as rigged.