German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid a personal visit to Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny while he was undergoing treatment in a Berlin hospital for poisoning, her spokesman said on Monday.
News of the meeting is likely to annoy Moscow, which rejects the finding of German, French and Swedish experts that Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent in Russia last month. Russia has repeatedly criticised Germany over what it says is a failure to share information on the case.
"It was a personal visit to Navalny in hospital," Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert told a regular news conference, declining to disclose details of what was said or how long the meeting lasted.
Germany still expects an explanation from Russia on the case, Seibert added.
Navalny wrote on Twitter that it was "a private meeting and conversation with the family". He added: "I am very grateful to Chancellor Merkel for visiting me in hospital."
The Navalny case has further worsened relations between Moscow and a number of Western countries. Merkel has faced calls to halt the nearly-completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline bringing Russian gas to Germany.
Navalny was flown from Russia to Berlin last month after falling ill on a domestic flight. He received treatment in the Charite hospital for 32 days before being discharged last week.
Russia launched a barrage of drones in an overnight attack on Ukraine on Friday, killing at least four people and injuring 35 in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, regional officials said.
Myanmar's junta leader attended a regional summit in Bangkok on Friday, a week after a massive earthquake devastated parts of the impoverished war-torn country, killing more than 3,100, and spurring an appeal for help by the United Nations chief.
Hackers targeting Australia's major pension funds in a series of coordinated attacks have stolen savings from some members at the biggest fund and compromised more than 20,000 accounts in A$4.2 trillion (AED 10.3 trillion) retirement savings sector.
South Korea's Constitutional Court on Friday decided to oust President Yoon Suk Yeol, upholding parliament's impeachment motion over his short-lived imposition of martial law last year that sparked the country's worst political crisis in decades.
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