15.09.2017, Germany.
FOCUS Magazin apologized for impolite statements toward the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, the magazine reported on its Facebook page on September 14.
The press attaché of the Russian embassy in Germany, Denis Mikerin, confirmed this on his page on the same social network; he said that the Editor-in-Chief of FOCUS, Robert Schneider, called him to personally express his apologies. According to Mikerin, Schneider assured him that the magazine did not intend to hurt or insult Vladimir Putin.
An article about Angela Merkel was published in FOCUS, in which the German Chancellor’s attitude to Putin was described as “she is not afraid of the dog Putin”. The FOCUS press service attempted to explain the insult as an “ironic wordplay” alleging that it meant a phrase which could be interpreted as “tough nut”. However, the Russian Foreign Ministry rejected that interpretation. Denis Mikerin noted that the expression cited by the FOCUS press service was absent in the text. He also pointed out that by Germans themselves, an “ironic wordplay” is perceived as a clear insult.
It is noteworthy that such a disregard toward Russian politicians in not an exceptional case among German journalists. For example, on September 14 the Rossa Primavera Information Agency reported that at a session of the Troitsky Court of Moscow, representatives of the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung failed to appear in court as defendants in a case submitted by Sergey Kurginyan, the leader of the Essence of Time movement, whom the newspaper’s journalist, Julian Hans, called “leader of a red fascist sect”. As a result, the session was postponed.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
