Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, whose close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin have drawn criticism in Ukraine since the start of the war, told the New York Times he was certain Putin would not cut Russian gas supplies to Germany. Schröder, who has since retired from politics, has taken a leading role on the board of directors of Russian state-owned energy giant Rosneft and works for Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2, announced he would only step down from his post if Putin shut down the Gas tap on Germany. “That’s not going to happen,” he said. But if that were the case, “then I would resign,” he confirmed, without specifying which role he was referring to.
The former chancellor has been heavily criticized in Germany for failing to sever ties with Russia’s fossil fuel industry despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Russian energy giant Gazprom also decided in early February, shortly before the start of the war in Ukraine, to give Schröder a position on the supervisory board. But the attack on Schröder was unleashed by the statements on the Bucha massacre: “I categorically deny that the Russian army massacred civilians in Bucha, this needs to be investigated. And in any case, I don’t think the order came from Putin, but from a lower level.” The former chancellor also refused to admit mistakes in politics towards Moscow during his chancellorship, which laid the foundation for Germany’s ever-increasing dependence on Russian oil and gas supplies with the two projects Nord Stream 1 and 2: “In the last thirty For years, a line that is supported by everyone, nobody has resisted it, neither the CDU nor the industry. Now they are suddenly know-it-alls.”
Schröder’s defense of Putin was “resolutely absurd”. That is the accusation made by SPD leader Saskia Esken, who called on Schröder to leave the SPD. The resignation from his posts at the Russian oil company Rosneft and on the North Stream shareholders’ committee “would have been necessary to save his reputation as an even more successful former chancellor, but unfortunately he did not follow that advice,” lamented Esken. “Gerhard Schröder – the SPD leader who has been accused again – has been acting exclusively as a businessman for years, and we should stop seeing him as an elderly statesman, as a former chancellor. His defense of Putin against war crimes charges is downright absurd ».
