Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) told the Handelsblatt: “I’m sure that Schröder has contacts in the Kremlin like no other German. But I don’t know whether, at the age of 77 and without any political office, he actually has any real influence on the willingness for peace in the Kremlin.” Weil added: “I would like it, but I can’t assess that.”
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil declared that everything that helps to end this “terrible war” is welcome. We’ll see if it’s of any use. In any case, every conversation situation is “something reasonable first,” said Klingbeil on Thursday evening in the ZDF program “Maybrit Illner”.
CDU member of the Bundestag Matthias Hauer expressed sharp criticism of Schröder’s action. “Does anyone really believe that Schröder is talking to Putin objectively and on an equal footing about Putin’s war?” Hauer asked on Twitter. “The warmonger has ordered his supporters and useful idiots to the Kremlin.” Schröder is part of Putin’s staging.
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The CDU foreign politician Roderich Kiesewetter doubted whether Schröder’s trip would help the overall situation. The former chancellor is a Russian lobbyist and has contributed to the “problematic dependency in the energy sector and to the questionable image of Russia for years,” Kiesewetter told the Handelsblatt. “In this respect, I do not see him as a credible mediation partner.”
Kremlin spokesman: “I have no information about Schröder. I can’t tell you anything.”
According to a report by the news portal “Politico” on Thursday, Schröder is said to have visited Russian President Vladimir Putin to mediate in the war in Ukraine. The trip came about at the request of the Ukrainian government. A first conversation is said to have taken place on Thursday – it was therefore still unclear whether more would follow.
According to the Russian agency Interfax, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said on Friday in Moscow: “I have no information about Schröder. I can’t tell you anything.”
The federal government had previously announced that the trip had not been agreed with her. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) only said on the sidelines of the EU summit in Versailles, France: “I don’t want to comment on that.”
SPD leader Klingbeil also said that he himself knew nothing about Schröder’s visit to Russia. “He is neither on behalf of the SPD nor on behalf of the federal government.” Government representatives with whom he spoke did not know anything about a meeting.
>> Read also: Political scientist calls Schröder’s behavior on the Russia question “self-absorbed, stubborn and incapable of insight”
Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk said: “I don’t know anything about it. I can hardly imagine that my government asked Schröder to do this.”
Schröder is in Moscow with his wife. Soyeon Schröder-Kim posted a photo of herself with clasped hands and closed eyes on her Instagram page on Thursday evening, with St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow’s Red Square in the background. Schröder and Schröder-Kim traveled to Moscow via Istanbul.
Prime Minister Weil demands consequences from Schröder
Schröder has long been friends with Putin, who launched a war of aggression against Ukraine on February 24. The former chancellor also works as a lobbyist for the natural gas pipeline companies Nord Stream 1 and 2 and is chairman of the supervisory board of the Russian oil company Rosneft. Even after the beginning of the Ukraine war, he held on to the post despite massive pressure from his own party.
The SPD politician Weil criticized Schröder’s behavior. It is a “cruel war of aggression” by Putin, which should be strongly condemned. “And that also means that you shouldn’t even give the semblance of normalcy at the moment, for example by holding mandates in Russian companies,” said the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony. “I think Gerhard Schröder’s behavior in this regard is completely wrong and I really wish that he would draw the right conclusions after all.”
The debate about Schröder “really hurt his soul,” Weil continued. Gerhard Schröder shaped Lower Saxony’s social democrats like Sigmar Gabriel and Thomas Oppermann, but he also shaped the way he did politics. “He had a lasting influence on us there.” And there is much that Schröder can be proud of in retrospect, such as his behavior during the Iraq war. “I am all the more concerned about his previous attitude towards the war against Ukraine,” says Weil.
The SPD leadership has already sent an ultimatum to Schröder to resign his mandates at Russian state-owned companies. A “prompt” answer is expected, party leader Klingbeil said a week ago. So far, such a response from Schröder is not known. A local SPD association has already applied for Schröder’s party expulsion. The German Football Association withdrew honorary membership from the ex-Chancellor on Friday.
Meanwhile, a debate is brewing in the SPD about the party’s course on Russia to date. SPD leader Klingbeil admitted to mistakes. It was right to focus on dialogue and balance. “But Putin lied and cheated, he wanted this war,” Klingbeil told Der Spiegel. “If I recapitulate everything, the war in Georgia, the annexation of Crimea, the contract killings, then from today’s perspective I have to say: We should have assessed the development in Russia differently in the past.”
More: Former Chancellor Schröder loses all employees in the Bundestag office