MOSCOW, May 6 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he had always met sincere, decent and reliable people in Germany.

"And if anyone was mistaken, they were earnest," President Putin told the Bild newspaper in a joint interview with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, when asked about what influence Putin's stay in Germany had had on him.

President Putin worked in Germany after World War II, on the other side of the Iron Curtain.

"From the political point of view, it was surprising that society and government institutions seemed stuck in the 1950-1960s. It was clear even for me, a Soviet, that such system was not viable," Putin stressed.

The head of the state added that certain moments made him bound up with Germany emotionally. "My daughter was born there, and Dresden is given as her birthplace in her birth certificate," President Putin said.