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DW: A former chancellor in the Moscow services

The news of the appointment of former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to the Supervisory Board of the Russian Gazprom at this time brings a wave of reactions in Berlin.

Another week of intense political and diplomatic negotiations is expected for the Ukrainian, with Emmanuel Macron heading to Moscow and German Chancellor Olaf Solz to Washington – with two consecutive visits to Kiev and Moscow scheduled for mid-February.

In this climate, the news of the imminent appointment of former Social Democrat Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to the Supervisory Board of the state-owned Russian gas company Gazprom, scheduled for June 30, caused a great stir. He will succeed Timur Kulimbayev, the son-in-law of former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who lost his last post after the January riots.

Long career in Russia

Gerhard Schroeder and his close friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin are no secret, so perhaps his pro-Russian statements should not make sense. His professional career in Russian energy after retiring from active politics in Germany (he was chancellor from 1998 to 2005) is also not new.

Gerhard Schroeder has held various senior positions, including in the Russian-German energy projects Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 (at Nord Stream AG). He was also the head of the Supervisory Board of the Russian company Rosneft. The new post at Gazprom, however, comes to be added at a particularly tense time for the future of Ukraine and German-Russian relations.

Solts: “There is only one chancellor”

Gerhard Schroeder recently provoked reactions to his statements in favor of Russia, saying that Russia’s moves on the border with Ukraine are a response to NATO actions in the Baltic and Poland. He also strongly criticized Kiev’s demands for Germany to provide defense weapons, calling them a “threat of war”, calling Germany’s refusal “reasonable”.

Asked to comment on the former chancellor’s statements on the ZDF’s Heute Journal show, the current Social Democrat chancellor Olaf Solz replied: “If I understand the German constitutional order correctly, there is only one chancellor and that is me. Schroeder and he did not give me any “.

Olaf Solz, distancing himself from Schroeder’s statements, sought to effectively defend his party, saying there was “unity” in its stance on the Ukrainian crisis. However, at the moment there are no other statements from the Social Democrats about Schroeder’s moves.

Reactions within German politics

At the same time, the Christian Social Union (CSU) reacted immediately to Schroeder’s upcoming appointment to Gazprom, demanding that his rights under the former chancellor be revoked. “The attitude of Gerhard Schroeder harms Germany (…) Whoever allows himself to be paid by authoritarian leaders, does not need the money of the German taxpayer,” said the head of the K.O. of CSU, Stephen Mueller.

The closure of the office of the former chancellor in the German Parliament is also demanded by the MP and leader of the Christian Democrats in Hamburg, Christoph Plus, noting that “Schroeder’s behavior is not worthy of a former chancellor”.

The chairman of the Defense Affairs Committee of the German Parliament, Marie-Agnes, Strack Zimmermann, is moving in the same direction, posting on twitter, among other things, that G. Schroeder “harms the country he’s supposedly serving and willingly receives more than a good salary from an authoritarian leader. The privileges of the German state are not compatible with that.”

Dimitra Kyranoudi, Berlin

Source: Deutsche Welle

Source: Capital

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