The former chancellor has not only been under criticism since the Ukraine war.
(Photo: AP)
Berlin Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) has sharply criticized his party colleague Gerhard Schröder for his apparently planned engagement with the Russian gas company Gazprom. “Holding on to the previous mandates was stubborn, accepting a new mandate on the supervisory board of a Russian energy company would be a provocation,” Weil told the Handelsblatt.
Gazprom had previously confirmed that the former German chancellor had been nominated for the Russian group’s supervisory board.
The SPD politician, who is accused of having close ties to Russia and who has been asked by the party leadership to leave the SPD, initially made no statement on Tuesday.
Schröder is a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin. On February 24, Russia invaded Ukraine with a military attack. President Putin is the driving force behind the invasion.
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Schröder gave up his position on the supervisory board of the Russian energy company Rosneft last week. Chancellor Olaf Scholz had previously asked Schröder to resign his mandate.
Weil referred to the war in Ukraine, which began three months ago with a Russian attack on the neighboring country. Tens of thousands of people have lost their lives since the war began. “In such a situation, commitment to a company that is undeniably important to the Russian state is out of the question,” Weil said. The state-controlled Gazprom group is one of Moscow’s most important suppliers of foreign exchange.
The 78-year-old is accused across party lines of filling highly paid positions in Russian state-owned companies, while the European Union is trying to impose sanctions on the Russian economy in order to help Ukraine in this way.
Because of his commitment to Russia, Schröder also lost the privileges previously enjoyed by the former German chancellors. The budget committee of the Bundestag decided last week that the office of the 78-year-old with four employees will be wound up. The European Parliament wants to put Schröder on the list of sanctions against oligarchs.
More: G7 idea: Russian oligarchs can buy their way out of sanctions with their billions