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German chancellor lays wreath at WWII memorial near Kremlin during farewell tour to Moscow

The veteran German head of state and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks on Friday which will be their first face-to-face encounter since the start of the coronavirus pandemic

German Chancellor Angela Merkel AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool

German Chancellor Angela Merkel

© AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool

MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. German Chancellor Angela Merkel took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier located in the Kremlin’s Alexander Garden during her visit to Moscow on Friday.

Merkel arrived in the Russian capital on August 20 in her apparently last visit as the German leader since she will not seek re-election as chancellor at the upcoming parliamentary elections in September.

The veteran German head of state and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks on Friday which will be their first face-to-face encounter since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

As the Kremlin press office reported earlier, both leaders are set to discuss the state and the prospects of bilateral cooperation in various fields, and also consider some pressing international and regional issues.

According to Berlin, apart from bilateral relations, the leaders of Germany and Russia will discuss the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the situation in Belarus and Afghanistan.

German Government Spokesman Steffen Seibert also mentioned the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and the role of Ukraine as a transit country for Russian natural gas among the issues up for the discussion.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a national WWII military memorial of honor. The remains of the Unknown Soldier were transferred from a mass grave near Moscow and re-buried in a solemn ceremony in the Alexander Garden at the Kremlin Wall in 1966. The memorial integrating the Eternal Flame and an alley of hero cities as its key elements was opened the next year. The memorial was subsequently expanded with a monument to Russian cities of military glory. The Guard of Honor was posted here in 1997 and is now Post No. 1.

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