In January 2007, Chancellor Angela Merkel met President Vladimir Putin in Sochi. Putin’s black Labrador, Koni, came into the room and moved around close to her. In her memoir Freiheit, published in 2024, Merkel wrote that Putin had known since 2006 that she was afraid of dogs. In Sochi she tried to ignore the dog while they posed for the photographers. She told herself: Bleib ruhig, konzentrier dich auf die Fotografen, es wird vorübergehen. Stay calm, concentrate on the photographers, it will pass. She wrote that Putin’s face seemed to show that he enjoyed the situation. She did not raise the matter with him. In November 2024, at a press conference in Astana, Putin said that he had not known she was afraid of dogs. He apologized to her in public.