In an interview with Die Welt am Sonntag, Merkel reproached Russian President Vladimir Putin for standing in the way of East European countries that would like to join the EU or strengthen relations with it. Merkel said "Russia created difficulties" for Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine, which had "on their own sovereign decisions, signed association agreements with the EU."
Russia's War Against Ukraine
Deutsche Welle: Merkel tells Die Welt EU Russia policy best for Ukraine
German Chancellor Angela Merkel gives a speech during her conservative Christian Democratic Union's (CDU) party congress in Cologne, western Germany, on December 9, 2014. Germany's conservative Christian Democrats were expected to overwhelmingly re-elect their popular Chancellor Angela Merkel as unopposed party chief at a triumphant congress running until December 10, 2014.
