Merkel spawns Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin sees Germany as a 'leading partner'.

The German-Russian relations have been strained since Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula Crimea in 2014 and provided military support to separatists in eastern Ukraine. As a result, many bilateral contacts were suspended and trade was significantly reduced as a result of EU sanctions.

At the same time, Germany gets a lot of criticism internationally, and especially within the EU, because it is macro-economically close to Russia: the two countries have linked their fate with Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline which critics say Ukraine sidelined.