Schröder blamed NATO for the deployment of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border.
(Photo: imago images/Jens Schicke)
St Petersburg, Berlin Ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is said to get another job in the Russian gas business. The SPD politician and friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin has been nominated for the supervisory board of the state-owned company Gazprom, the energy giant announced on Friday in St. Petersburg.
The Annual General Meeting is therefore planned for June 30th. Schröder is to replace Timur Kulibayev, a son-in-law of former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who was ousted in the wake of the January riots.
The 77-year-old Schröder is already Chairman of the Shareholders’ Committee of Nord Stream AG and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nord Stream 2 AG. Both Baltic Sea gas pipelines of the operating companies connect Russia and Germany. The former chancellor is also the head of the supervisory board at the Russian state energy company Rosneft.
Schröder had recently criticized Ukraine’s demands for arms deliveries in view of the serious tensions with Russia, to Moscow’s great delight, as “saber rattling”. He also blamed NATO for the Russian troop deployment on the Ukrainian border. His partisanship with Russia had triggered widespread criticism in Germany – there were also discussions within his party.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
Even now there is criticism. The economic policy spokesman for the Greens in the Bundestag, Dieter Janecek, attacked Schröder sharply. “Gerhard Schröder is a well-paid lobbyist in Putin’s service, he serves as a fig leaf to justify the Russian government’s aggressive course towards Ukraine and the European Union,” Janecek told Handelsblatt. “The current crisis shows how necessary it is that we make ourselves independent of fossil fuels in the medium term.” The new federal government will ensure more speed here, according to Janecek.
The CSU demands consequences for the former chancellor. “Gerhard Schröder gets a promotion from his bosom friend Putin,” tweeted the parliamentary director of the CSU state group in the Bundestag, Stefan Müller. “We should talk across parties about withdrawing his official appointments as former chancellor. He harms Germany.”
John Herbst, former US ambassador to Ukraine and current head of the Eurasia Center of the Atlantic Council think tank, recently told the Handelsblatt that Schröder was “a national scandal”. He called him a “scoundrel” who only makes things worse for Germany.
More: “Make the Russian economy even more fragile” – EU wants to stop Moscow with capital freezes and tech embargo