Putin, Merkel meet in Moscow on anniversary of Navalny's poisoning

German Chancellor Angela Merkel began her visit to Moscow with a call for continued dialogue despite significant political tensions between the two countries.

"I am pleased that we can meet once again, perhaps as a farewell visit, but also as a working visit here in the Kremlin," Merkel said.

"Even if we definitely have profound differences today, we talk to each other, and that should continue, and shape and inform German-Russian relations."

She laid a wreath at the grave of the unknown soldier at the Kremlin, 80 years after Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, then headed to the Kremlin where she met Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The two leaders were due to have lunch before addressing a series of issues from Afghanistan to energy policy.

Putin said he was glad to welcome the chancellor and her colleagues to the Kremlin, the Tass news agency reported. He said that he was certain that the visit would not be just a farewell one, but also be filled with "serious, business-like content".

Their visit began exactly one year since dissident Alexei Navalny was the target of a poison attack.

To mark the anniversary, Navalny published a guest article in several Western newspapers, demanding the West impose sanctions on Putin's supporters among the oligarchs.

Navalny is currently in a prison camp, and holds Putin responsible for the assassination attempt.

Germany and other Western countries have repeatedly called on Russia to investigate the case, while Moscow rejects the accusation, demanding proof that Navalny was poisoned.

The Russian judiciary has banned the opposition politician's organizations and he now faces an even longer prison term with a new charge.

Navalny also thanked his rescuers on Friday. "Everything has turned out well," he said. "I got a second chance to live and make decisions that I think are right and honest," he said in a post on Instagram, accompanied by a photo of himself and his wife Yulia.

Navalny's case is just one in a series of several issues that weigh heavily on relations between the two countries.

The EU has imposed sanctions on Russia because of the attack on Navalny, as well as a hacking attack on the German parliament in 2015 and also over the Ukraine conflict.

Ahead of the visit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reproached Merkel for a policy towards Russia which he said was "not achieving its goals."

Zelensky told the Funke Media Group on Friday that the chancellor is "interested in a healthy - even cordial - dialogue with Russia and wants to kill two birds with one stone. But the birds are flying further and further apart - the distance between them is growing."

Merkel and Putin were also expected to discuss the controversial Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, which is to be completed this month.

Zelensky described the project as "a weapon" that Moscow could use to tighten gas supplies and drive up prices, and said he hoped that it would fail.

Afghanistan and Belarus are further topics that are likely to be discussed during Merkel's visit, her first to Moscow since January 2020.