Berlin and Moscow announced on Sunday that Germany had provided 12 million euros to help Russian World War II veterans and siege survivors but Moscow said it was not enough. The announcement came as Russia marked the 75th anniversary of the end of a World War II siege of Leningrad that claimed more than 800,000 lives.

The initiative was billed as a "voluntary humanitarian gesture towards the surviving victims of the blockade". Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Leningrad, is home to around 86,000 siege survivors.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019