Russian Embassy Expects Apology From German Magazine Focus for Insulting Putin

BERLIN (Sputnik) — The Russian Embassy in Germany expects an apology from the German Focus magazine for insulting Russian President Vladimir Putin, the embassy's press secretary Denis Mikerin said Tuesday.

"We can only hope that the offensive comment with regard to Russian President Vladimir Putin that appeared in the cover article of the Focus magazine's latest issue is nothing but an unfortunate linguistic exercise of a journalist or of journalism, that was allowed to be published due to an oversight. And that Robert Schneider, the editor-in-chief of Focus, who definitely has sufficient professional and life experience and understanding of 'red lines' of journalistic aesthetics, will find a possibility (and, of course, the courage) to apology for an obvious mistake of his editorial office," Mikerin wrote on the embassy's page on Facebook.

Mikerin noted that the freedom of mass media is now significantly wider than it was 20 years ago, adding that some issues have no relation to freedom of media and press and cannot be accepted.

Earlier in the day, the Focus Magazine published an article devoted to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, which contained insulting words targeting the Russian President.

The press service of the German government has refused to comment on the incident.