German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin are slated to hold talks in Moscow on Friday.
{RVO}
This, amid the crisis unfolding in Afghanistan.
Russia's alleged crackdown on anti-government figures, such as opposition politician Alexei Navalny, and treatment of Ukraine remain a source of ongoing tension between the two leaders' countries.
Other challenging issues that will certainly play a role in the upcoming meeting are a gas pipeline between Russia and Germany opposed by the United States, the repression of dissident figures in Belarus, and allegations that Belarus has been channelling migrants into Latvia, Lithuania and Poland aimed at destabilising the European Union and trigger a migrant crisis like the one last decade.
Merkel is heading to Russia on the anniversary of Alexei Navalny falling gravely ill on a plane while in Siberian airspace.
The personal relations between the two leaders has been deteriorating since 2014, when Russian annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and backed separatists there, and as a result of Moscow's authoritarian rule.
The focus of the talks will be on the aforementioned international questions.
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