Copyrighted Image? DMCA | Vladimir Putin reacted angrily to the German chancellor Angela Merkel's questioning of the two-year jail sentence for the anti-Kremlin punk band p*ssy Riot on Friday, telling her that a member the group had once committed an anti-Semitic act. Merkel and Putin have long had a contentious relationship, unlike Putin's chummy ties with former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who joined Nord Stream, a Gazprom-led pipeline project, upon leaving office in 2005. Merkel appeared to urge Putin to take criticism more lightly: "If I were offended every time I was criticised, I wouldn't last three days as chancellor". |