Geopolitics is to blame for yesterday’s meeting with no results between Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. After their meeting, the last one for Merkel who is leaving office after Germany’s Sept. 26 national elections, Merkel demanded at the joint press conference that Alexey Navalny be released from the Siberian prison camp, telling Putin that Germany “will stay on the case.” She also demanded that the ban against three German NGOs be lifted. Putin responded by saying that Navalny had been jailed for criminal offenses, not for political reasons.
On Afghanistan, Putin said that “irresponsible” policies trying to “impose foreign values on the country” were mainly to blame for the present situation. He called for accepting the situation as it is in Kabul right now, that a dialogue with the new leaders is necessary to bringing peace to the country and to defeat terrorism.
