Berlin, not Brussels, is the true political capital of the bloc: U.S. President Barack Obama met with Merkel in Germany twice in his first year as president (and visited Berlin during his election campaign). He put off his first visit to the Belgian capital until this year. It is Merkel who has taken on the role of chief Western negotiator with Russia's increasingly hostile president, Vladimir Putin, not just because each speaks the other's language, but because of her implied seniority in Europe.
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