"Relaxed" Putin awes German bakery with visit

DRESDEN, Germany, Oct 13 (Reuters) A ''relaxed'' Russian President Vladimir Putin ducked into a small Dresden bakery for a cup of coffee and a glance at the local newspaper, obviously at home in the city where he worked as a KGB spy.

Bakery manager Alexandra Gaertner said he walked into her Wiener Feinbaecker cafe for a cup of coffee costing 1.90 euros and a 99-cent walnut pastry on Wednesday.

''I couldn't believe it when he walked in but he spoke excellent German and I could understand him very well,'' Gaertner, 36, told Reuters yesterday. ''He had a very calm aura and seemed totally relaxed.'' She said Putin read parts of the ''Dresdner Morgenpost'' daily and then joined in a lively conversation in German with a group of construction workers who were standing at the next table.

Gaertner said Mr Putin, wearing a dark blue suit, pointed at pictures in the newspaper of him with Chancellor Angela Merkel from the previous day's meeting in Dresden.

Putin finished his pastry and coffee and was gone after about ten minutes with his security and several photographers.

Putin lived in Dresden as a KGB agent in the 1980s and speaks fluent German. He met Merkel in the eastern German city on Tuesday before flying to Munich on Wednesday for a meeting with Bavarian Premier Edmund Stoiber.

Putin's flight to Munich was delayed for an hour while he savoured an extra few moments in Dresden. Bild newspaper said that Stoiber, who was kept waiting in Munich by the unexpected delay, was told it was due to fog.

Bild said Mr Putin also took a quick look inside the nearby Frauenkirchen, or Church of Our Lady, that was firebombed at the end of World War Two and recently rebuild for 180 million euros.

REUTERS BDP KN0914