Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin inaugurated the world’s largest industrial technology trade fair in Hanover on April 7.
“The greetings were a little rigid,” notes the newspaper, which found that in spite of their smiles and the announcement of reinforced bilateral economic relations, the two leaders appeared tense at the ceremony.
Russia’s recent decision to tighten regulations on foreign NGO’s and recent police visits to the Moscow offices of several German NGOs, including Transparency International and the Konrad Adenauer and Friedrich Ebert thinktanks, are responsible for the strained atmosphere.

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