Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach has in view of the conflict over Ukraine clearly from the actions of former chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) distanced. “It is very clear that what he is doing would not occur to me,” said the SPD politician on Wednesday evening in a discussion with the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”.
It’s something “where I never dream of doing fat business with an oligarch and a – yes, if you will – dictator who keeps half the world in suspense,” said Lauterbach with a view to Schröder’s relationship with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. It gives the impression that Schröder has become dependent, even if only financially.
Schroeder, who as longtime friend of Putin is, among other things, the head of the supervisory board at the Russian state energy company Rosneft. Recently, the fact that he had criticized Ukraine’s demands for arms deliveries as “saber rattling” caused a stir.