Send me an Angela ...

So finally she was there. How did we anticipate the visit of our new Mrs. Bundeskanzlerin in Putin's den in mid January. As usually first visits by new presidents or government heads are just a little bit of small-talk. Europeans did not really expect much from the meeting. Controversal topics such as gas, Chechnya or Belarus were carefully avoided. The Kommersant stated that she even said that...:

"...the partnership between Russia and Germany should be more intensive than before."

Err?? More intensive? Well, let us think about that for a few days. I am very curious what that would be. At least there was some consesus on another topic: Iran.

"As for Iran,” the president continued, “we spoke a lot about it. We, Russia and the Federal republic, have very close positions on that problem. One of the main problems is the enrichment of uranium. We proposed setting up a joint enterprise on the territory of Russia, and now we are hearing various points of view from our Iranian partners. One of them came to us from the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Our Iranian partners said that they do not completely exclude such a possibility. In any case, we have to work carefully and not make any sudden moves."

Right lets not make too sudden a move yet. Let's not sell the Mullahs anything dangerous and not do business with them at all.
And by the way, it would be good if we do not sell those Mullahs any weapons. You never know what you might have to deal with on your march on Teheran. But maybe the West should rethink that twice as the US home front is crumbling.


(And over there is my new gas stove I just bought, Courtesy of English Pravda)

But let's focus back on Angie. She really had a nice first trip to Russia and maybe the two really do get along as well as seen on the pictures, and she even met some NGOs. Russiprofile said that:

"But Merkel also met with representatives of Russian human rights organizations, which are strong critics of Kremlin policy. She met with the heads of the Memorial, Moscow Helsinki Group and Soldiers’ Mothers Committee human rights groups. Former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, whose government was dismissed by Putin ahead of the 2004 presidential elections, and who has announced that he will be a candidate in the campaign for the office in 2008, was also present at the meeting."

Nice done, Angie.