President Vladimir Putin's first foreign trip after being sworn in for a third term reflects a policy course driven primarily by Russia's economic interests.
He travels Thursday to Belarus, where Russia has long had designs on economic assets, and from there directly to Germany and France in an attempt to boost ties with the continent's most powerful economies.
In an executive order released as he returned to the presidency this month, Putin named creating conditions for Russia's economic modernization and strengthening its positions in global markets as his No. 1 foreign policy priority.
Belarus has been Russia's closest ally since the 1990s, when the neighboring countries signed a union agreement that envisaged close economic, political and military ties and set the goal of an eventual merger.
Their relations, however, have often plunged into acrimony, with flamboyant Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko accusing the Kremlin of trying to wrest control over key sectors of his nation's economy.
The visit came as part of Mr. Putin’s first trip abroad after reclaiming the Russian presidency.
After stops in Belarus and Germany, Mr. Putin planned to travel on to Paris to with France’s newly elected president, François Hollande, later on Friday. The visit to Berlin was not intended as an emergency summit on Syria but escalating violence there has thrust the issue to the top of the agenda.
Mr. Putin has emerged as the fulcrum in efforts by Western nations and Arab foes to force President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to step down. Russia’s government has refused to back any move toward outside intervention in Syria, its longtime partner and last significant foothold in the Middle East.
Russia, along with China, has blocked the United Nations Security Council from taking more vigorous steps, as advocated by Western and most Arab states, to halt the violence in Syria. American officials have stopped just short of calling for military action, opting thus far to focus on humanitarian efforts to supply medical and other emergency supplies.
Germany and France were among the Western nations to coordinate the simultaneous expulsion of Syrian ambassadors on Tuesday as a demonstration of international outrage following the killings of over 100 civilians, including dozens of children, in the Houla area near Homs.
The massacre has thrust the 15-month-old Syrian conflict back into the center of international attention. Activists say pro-government fighters known as shabiha were responsible for the killings, while the Syrian government has blamed its opponents.
The United Nations Security Council, while stopping short of blaming the government, censured it for using heavy artillery against the civilian population in Houla.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned on Thursday that the killings in Houla “could plunge Syria into catastrophic civil war — a civil war from which the country would never recover.”
Ms. Merkel on Thursday praised what she called Russia’s “constructive cooperation” over the weekend in the United Nations Security Council. While the chancellor’s relationship with Mr. Putin remains cautious — those close to her say she still associates him with his role as an operative in the former East Germany where she was born — she is fully aware that Russia’s backing is key to achieving any further Security Council action against Syria.
Germany was starkly criticized by Western partners when Berlin refused to support NATO’s air campaign in Libya and abstained from the United Nations Security Council vote to support rebels opposed to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
Moscow must recognize “that we are not working against Russian strategic interests when we try to end the violence in Syria,” said Guido Westerwelle, Germany’s foreign minister, in the daily newspaper Die Welt on Friday. But Mr. Westerwelle also said he was opposed to a discussion of armed intervention which could “create the impression that military intervention is the ideal way to a swift solution.”
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