Merkel in her memoir assessed Putin's confidence in his own rightness

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel in her memoirs called Russian President Vladimir Putin "a man who was always on the alert" with a remarkable sense of self-righteousness. The Bild newspaper reported on November 20.

"I was above all struck by his sense of self-righteousness," Merkel wrote, recalling Putin's 2007 speech at the Munich Security Conference.

The former German chancellor also called the Russian head of state "a man who was always on guard."

In addition, as Angela Merkel reported, she did not consider Putin's statements voiced then as wrong and cited his criticism of the US war in Iraq as an example.

"Russia will not disappear from the world map," the former German leader pointed out in her memoirs.

Earlier, on July 17, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had no plans to congratulate Merkel on her anniversary. He pointed out that over the past few years between Putin and Merkel "there has been no communication."

Angela Merkel served as Federal Chancellor of Germany from November 22, 2005 to December 8, 2021. The last meeting between Putin and Merkel took place in August 2021. Merkel visited Russia on a working visit as part of her "farewell tour".