Angela Merkel was born on 17 July 1954, is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. During her chancellorship, Merkel was frequently referred to as the de facto leader of the European Union (EU) and the most powerful woman in the world.
Following
her retirement, Merkel has written a memoir called Freedom, with her longtime
assistant and adviser, Beate Baumann. Angela Merkel spoke out about her
experiences with world leaders during her time in office.
- Merkel
recalls being kept waiting by Putin at the Group of Eight summit she hosted in
2007: “If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s unpunctuality.” She writes.
- She
recounts a visit to the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi that year in which
Putin’s labrador appeared during a photo opportunity, although the Russian knew
full well she was afraid of dogs. Putin seemed to enjoy the situation, she
notes, and she chose not to address it —adhering, as she often did, to the
principle of “never explain, never complain”.
- The
previous year, she recounts Putin pointing to wooden houses in Siberia and
telling her poor people lived there who “could be easily seduced,” and that
similar groups had been encouraged by money from the U.S. government to take
part in Ukraine’s “Orange Revolution” of 2004 against attempted election fraud.
Putin, she says, added: “I will never allow something like that in Russia.”
- Merkel
says she was irritated by Putin's "self-righteousness" in a 2007
speech in Munich. She said that appearance showed Putin as she knew him,
"as someone who was always on guard against being treated badly and ready
to give out at any time, including power games with a dog and making other
people wait for him."
Read more: Angela Merkel's Memoirs: A candid critique of Trump
"One
could find this all childish and reprehensible, one could shake one's head over
it — but that didn't make Russia disappear from the map," she writes.
- At one
point she appears to suggest that Putin's 2022 invasion of Ukraine was timed to
follow her departure from office. "You won't always be chancellor, and
then they'll join NATO," he said of Ukraine. "And I want to prevent
that."
Some Central
and Eastern European leaders, she added, had been guilty of wishful thinking.
"They seem to want Russia to just disappear, to not exist. I couldn't
blame them. But Russia, heavily nuclear armed, did exist."
- Merkel writes that she experienced Putin as "someone who didn't want to be disrespected, ready to lash out at all times".