Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in the northern German city of
Hamburg Monday for informal meetings with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
The two leaders will witness signings of a series of major bilateral
agreements on education, space exploration, youth exchange and economic
cooperation while exchanging views on the political crisis in Ukraine, local
media reported.
Schroeder, as a good friend of Putin, would help bring forward the relations
between the European Union and Russia affected due to the disagreement on the
re-run of the Ukrainian presidential election.
Putin's two-day visit had been scheduled for an earlier date but was
postponed in September due to a mass hostage taking at Beslan school in southern
Russia which cost some 344 lives.