>1/5
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>*Gerhard Schröder, who is paid almost $1 million a year by Russian-controlled energy companies, has become a pariah. But he is also a symbol of Germany’s Russia policy.*
>
>HANOVER, Germany — On the evening of Dec. 9, 2005, 17 days after Gerhard Schröder left office as chancellor of Germany, he got a call on his cellphone. It was his friend President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
>
>Mr. Putin was pressing Mr. Schröder to accept an offer to lead the shareholder committee of Nord Stream, the Russian-controlled company in charge of building the first undersea gas pipeline directly connecting Russia and Germany.
>
>“Are you afraid to work for us?” Mr. Putin had joked. Mr. Schröder might well have been, given the appearance of possible impropriety — the pipeline he was now being asked to head had been agreed to in the final weeks of his chancellorship, with his strong support.
>
>He took the job anyway.
>
>Seventeen years later, the former chancellor, who recounted the events himself in a pair of rare interviews, remains as defiant as ever.
>
>“I don’t do mea culpa,” Mr. Schröder said, sitting in his sprawling light- and art-filled office in the center of his home city, Hanover, in northwestern Germany. “It’s not my thing.”
>
>With Mr. Putin now waging a brutal war in Ukraine, all of Germany is reconsidering the ties with Russia that — despite years of warnings from the United States and Eastern European allies — have left Germany deeply reliant on Russian gas, giving Mr. Putin coercive leverage over Europe while filling the Kremlin’s war chest.
>
>That dependency grew out of a German belief — embraced by a long succession of chancellors, industry leaders, journalists and the public — that a Russia bound in trade would have too much to risk in conflict with Europe, making Germany more secure while also profiting its economy.
>
>Mr. Schröder was far from alone in that conviction. But today he has become the most prominent face of that long era of miscalculation, not only because he expresses no regret, but because he has also profited handsomely from it, earning millions while promoting Russian energy interests.
>
>His close ties to Mr. Putin have made him a pariah in his own country, where many now criticize him for using his clout and connections over the past two decades to enrich himself at the expense of Germany.
>
>“He took advantage of the reputation and influence of the chancellor’s office and offered himself up as an agent for Russian interests to get rich,” said Norbert Röttgen, a conservative lawmaker, former minister and longtime Russia hawk.
>
>In the interviews, Mr. Schröder, now 78, spoke with undiminished swagger, cracking jokes but arguing in essence that, well, if he got rich, then so did his country. When it came to Russian gas, everyone was on board, he pointed out, mocking his detractors over copious amounts of white wine.
>
>“They all went along with it for the last 30 years,” he said. “But suddenly everyone knows better.”
>
>Mr. Schröder scoffed at the notion of now distancing himself personally from Mr. Putin, 69, whom he considers a friend and sees regularly, most recently last month in an informal effort to help end the Ukraine war.
>
>Mr. Schröder refuses to resign from his board seats on Russian energy companies, despite calls to do so from across the political spectrum, not least from Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a fellow Social Democrat, who worked closely with Mr. Schröder when he was chancellor.
>
>Distancing himself now, Mr. Schröder said, would lose him the trust of the one man who can end the war: Mr. Putin. Even so, after all of his years of close relations with Mr. Putin, he walked away with nothing during his one brief interlude trying to mediate in the Ukraine conflict.
>
>It is hard by now — with Mr. Putin unrelenting more than two months into the Ukraine war — to avoid the impression that Mr. Schröder is useful to the Russian leader as a cat’s paw to further his own interest in hooking Germany on cheap Russian gas.
>
>Germany’s reliance on Russian gas surged to 55 percent before Russia’s attack on Ukraine began in February, from 39 percent in 2011, amounting to 200 million euros, or about $220 million, in energy payments every day to Russia.
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>It has helped make Mr. Putin perhaps one of the world’s richest men, has buoyed his otherwise feeble economy, and has enabled and emboldened him to pursue his aggression in Ukraine.
>
>Even as Mr. Putin was massing troops on the Ukraine border last fall, Mr. Schröder visited the Russian leader in Sochi, one of Mr. Putin’s favorite retreats, across from the Black Sea coast that Russian forces are now trying to rip from Ukraine.
>
>A cellphone photograph that Mr. Schröder showed me from that visit shows the two men smiling at each other, Mr. Putin in red hockey gear and Mr. Schröder in a light blue shirt and blazer. Asked what they talked about, he told me, “Soccer.”
>
>Mr. Schröder distanced himself from the war, though not from Mr. Putin. I asked about the by-now notorious atrocities in Bucha, a Kyiv suburb. “That has to be investigated,” Mr. Schröder said, but added that he did not think those orders would have come from Mr. Putin, but from a lower authority.
>
>“I think this war was a mistake, and I’ve always said so,” Mr. Schröder said. “What we have to do now is to create peace as quickly as possible.”
>
>“I have always served German interests,” he added. “I do what I can do. At least one side trusts me.”
>
>That side is not the German side.
This is the 5th article about Germany within one hour.
God, look at the picture in the article, how old he has become!
He has no power in Germany and is shunned by everyone because of his stance in regard to Russia.
So yeah, this is just another article to paint Germany in the light of a Russian-friendly policy.
It is obvious that the poster is trying to make Germany look bad.
Even though it is the other way round. There is a necessity to get along with Russia because they’re the indirect neighbour.
Regarding all of this, it is absolutely necessary to deliver heavy weapons to Ukraine.
But on the other way it is important to mention that, on the long run, Germany is in need of some continuation to have good relations with Russia.
This is more easily dismissbale for the UK or the US, who are geographically more distanced to Russia then Germany is.
That shouldn’t keep Germany from sending weapons to Ukraine though.
Most powerful EU country and the leader of the EU, what a joke
5 comments
>1/5
>
>*Gerhard Schröder, who is paid almost $1 million a year by Russian-controlled energy companies, has become a pariah. But he is also a symbol of Germany’s Russia policy.*
>
>HANOVER, Germany — On the evening of Dec. 9, 2005, 17 days after Gerhard Schröder left office as chancellor of Germany, he got a call on his cellphone. It was his friend President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
>
>Mr. Putin was pressing Mr. Schröder to accept an offer to lead the shareholder committee of Nord Stream, the Russian-controlled company in charge of building the first undersea gas pipeline directly connecting Russia and Germany.
>
>“Are you afraid to work for us?” Mr. Putin had joked. Mr. Schröder might well have been, given the appearance of possible impropriety — the pipeline he was now being asked to head had been agreed to in the final weeks of his chancellorship, with his strong support.
>
>He took the job anyway.
>
>Seventeen years later, the former chancellor, who recounted the events himself in a pair of rare interviews, remains as defiant as ever.
>
>“I don’t do mea culpa,” Mr. Schröder said, sitting in his sprawling light- and art-filled office in the center of his home city, Hanover, in northwestern Germany. “It’s not my thing.”
>
>With Mr. Putin now waging a brutal war in Ukraine, all of Germany is reconsidering the ties with Russia that — despite years of warnings from the United States and Eastern European allies — have left Germany deeply reliant on Russian gas, giving Mr. Putin coercive leverage over Europe while filling the Kremlin’s war chest.
>
>That dependency grew out of a German belief — embraced by a long succession of chancellors, industry leaders, journalists and the public — that a Russia bound in trade would have too much to risk in conflict with Europe, making Germany more secure while also profiting its economy.
>
>Mr. Schröder was far from alone in that conviction. But today he has become the most prominent face of that long era of miscalculation, not only because he expresses no regret, but because he has also profited handsomely from it, earning millions while promoting Russian energy interests.
>
>His close ties to Mr. Putin have made him a pariah in his own country, where many now criticize him for using his clout and connections over the past two decades to enrich himself at the expense of Germany.
>
>“He took advantage of the reputation and influence of the chancellor’s office and offered himself up as an agent for Russian interests to get rich,” said Norbert Röttgen, a conservative lawmaker, former minister and longtime Russia hawk.
>
>In the interviews, Mr. Schröder, now 78, spoke with undiminished swagger, cracking jokes but arguing in essence that, well, if he got rich, then so did his country. When it came to Russian gas, everyone was on board, he pointed out, mocking his detractors over copious amounts of white wine.
>
>“They all went along with it for the last 30 years,” he said. “But suddenly everyone knows better.”
>
>Mr. Schröder scoffed at the notion of now distancing himself personally from Mr. Putin, 69, whom he considers a friend and sees regularly, most recently last month in an informal effort to help end the Ukraine war.
>
>Mr. Schröder refuses to resign from his board seats on Russian energy companies, despite calls to do so from across the political spectrum, not least from Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a fellow Social Democrat, who worked closely with Mr. Schröder when he was chancellor.
>
>Distancing himself now, Mr. Schröder said, would lose him the trust of the one man who can end the war: Mr. Putin. Even so, after all of his years of close relations with Mr. Putin, he walked away with nothing during his one brief interlude trying to mediate in the Ukraine conflict.
>
>It is hard by now — with Mr. Putin unrelenting more than two months into the Ukraine war — to avoid the impression that Mr. Schröder is useful to the Russian leader as a cat’s paw to further his own interest in hooking Germany on cheap Russian gas.
>
>Germany’s reliance on Russian gas surged to 55 percent before Russia’s attack on Ukraine began in February, from 39 percent in 2011, amounting to 200 million euros, or about $220 million, in energy payments every day to Russia.
>
>It has helped make Mr. Putin perhaps one of the world’s richest men, has buoyed his otherwise feeble economy, and has enabled and emboldened him to pursue his aggression in Ukraine.
>
>Even as Mr. Putin was massing troops on the Ukraine border last fall, Mr. Schröder visited the Russian leader in Sochi, one of Mr. Putin’s favorite retreats, across from the Black Sea coast that Russian forces are now trying to rip from Ukraine.
>
>A cellphone photograph that Mr. Schröder showed me from that visit shows the two men smiling at each other, Mr. Putin in red hockey gear and Mr. Schröder in a light blue shirt and blazer. Asked what they talked about, he told me, “Soccer.”
>
>Mr. Schröder distanced himself from the war, though not from Mr. Putin. I asked about the by-now notorious atrocities in Bucha, a Kyiv suburb. “That has to be investigated,” Mr. Schröder said, but added that he did not think those orders would have come from Mr. Putin, but from a lower authority.
>
>“I think this war was a mistake, and I’ve always said so,” Mr. Schröder said. “What we have to do now is to create peace as quickly as possible.”
>
>“I have always served German interests,” he added. “I do what I can do. At least one side trusts me.”
>
>That side is not the German side.
This is the 5th article about Germany within one hour.
God, look at the picture in the article, how old he has become!
He has no power in Germany and is shunned by everyone because of his stance in regard to Russia.
So yeah, this is just another article to paint Germany in the light of a Russian-friendly policy.
It is obvious that the poster is trying to make Germany look bad.
Even though it is the other way round. There is a necessity to get along with Russia because they’re the indirect neighbour.
Regarding all of this, it is absolutely necessary to deliver heavy weapons to Ukraine.
But on the other way it is important to mention that, on the long run, Germany is in need of some continuation to have good relations with Russia.
This is more easily dismissbale for the UK or the US, who are geographically more distanced to Russia then Germany is.
That shouldn’t keep Germany from sending weapons to Ukraine though.
Most powerful EU country and the leader of the EU, what a joke