(Vatican Radio) The chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel is due to meet Russia's President Vladimir Putin in Russia for the first time since 2015. Tuesday's gathering comes at a time of troubled bilateral relations over the war in Syria and Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.
Listen to Stefan Bos' report:
The leaders meet at Putin's summer residence in Sochi to see if they can overcome
the biggest tensions between them since the end of the Cold War.
However that is difficult as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President
Putin remain divided over Russia's annexation of Crimea in Ukraine in 2014. Germany
was a driving force behind the European Union
sanctions imposed in response.
Merkel wants Russia to seek an end to the conflict in Ukraine by using its influence
on pro-Russian separatists. The West has accused Russia of supporting the rebels with
weapons and troops in the fighting that killed some 10,000 people, charges Russia
denies.
SEEKING COOPERATION
However Merkel also needs Moscow's cooperation to bring peace to Syria. That is difficult
as Moscow supports Syrian President Bashar Assad and his forces, while the West opposes
him.
Yet President Putin equally needs Merkel's support in to lift the EU's sanctions and
he is also keen to hear her opinion of US President Donald Trump, whom she recently
met.
They spoke frequently before the breakdown in communications since 2014. It helps
that Merkel speaks Russian, having grown up in communist East Germany, while Putin
speaks German, from his years working for the secret service KGB in Dresden in the
1980s.
But despite their language skills both sides have downplayed the prospect of major
breakthroughs during their meeting in Sochi.
Putin will later meet Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, amid concerns in the West
over what it views as his autocratic style.
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