"No business with warmonger Putin": criticism of Schröder by Weil and Klingbeil

Created: 02/26/2022, 19:06

By: Mark Stoffers

Stephan Weil clearly criticizes his sponsor and role model Gerhard Schröder.

© Nigel Treblin |

dpa

The SPD has recently exercised more restraint in the case of Gerhard Schröder and his involvement in Russian companies.

Now Weil and Klingbeil get in touch.

Hanover – For a long time things were quiet in the SPD camp when it came to former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and his involvement in Russian state-owned companies.

But now two SPD politicians from Lower Saxony are demanding a very clear line from the ex-chancellor.

Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil went on the offensive.

In the course of the war in Ukraine and the ongoing fighting in the crisis area, Weil issued a statement calling on former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to give up his involvement in Russian energy companies.

"Gerhard Schröder has done a great job for Germany and Lower Saxony.

This applies above all to peace policy: the courage with which he kept Germany out of the Iraq war will not be forgotten,” von Weil said in the statement and wrote further.

"It is precisely against this background that many people are currently looking at Schröder and his position on Putin's war of aggression in Ukraine."

Stephan Weil demands that Gerhard Schröder withdraw from the energy companies – Russian action “unacceptable”

“It is correct that he assigns responsibility for this to the Russian government, but it cannot stop there.

Rather, it must be important to convey unequivocally everywhere that the Russian approach is completely unacceptable," emphasized the state chairman of the SPD in Lower Saxony.

In no way should the impression of normality be conveyed.

"That's why Gerhard Schröder must also end his involvement in Russian energy companies and thus support the efforts of the federal government and the entire West," he urged his party colleague.

Weil, whose federal state is preparing for the possible arrival of refugees in Lower Saxony, had kept his own criticism of Schröder's former sponsor and role model in check until the very end.

After all, the former Chancellor took the current SPD state chairman under his wing early on and actively helped Weil in several election campaigns with his support and predicted a federal political career for Lower Saxony's Prime Minister.

But despite their shared past, Weil could no longer hold back his criticism.

Weil criticizes Gerhard Schröder: Ex-Chancellor is considered to be the longtime of Russia's President Vladimir Putin

"We can currently make a clear distinction between perpetrators and victims of the aggression in Ukraine," the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony said in a statement.

The people in Ukraine are victims of a war of aggression by Russia that cannot be justified by anything.

"For the SPD in Lower Saxony it is clear whose side they are on in this situation - on the side of Ukraine."

The former Chancellor is considered a longtime friend of Russia's President Vladimir Putin.

In addition, former Chancellor Schröder holds the post of Chairman of the Supervisory Board at the Russian state energy company Rosneft and has management positions in the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipeline projects. The natural gas pipelines through the Baltic Sea connect Russia and Germany, and Nord Stream 2 was commissioned after the Attack on Ukraine put on hold by German government.

Furthermore, according to a statement by the Russian energy company Gazprom, Schröder has been nominated for the supervisory board of the state-owned company.

Lars Klingbeil: SPD chairman with a clear demand on Gerhard Schröder – “You don’t do business with warmongers like Putin”

SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil took the same line.

The SPD politician from Soltau im Heidekreis called on Gerhard Schröder that the former chancellor should end his business relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin with immediate effect.

He also expects a clear behavior from Schröder these days, wrote Klingbeil on Facebook on Saturday.

“He rightly condemned the illegal war in Ukraine.

But: This war is being initiated solely by Putin.” And therefore there can only be one logical conclusion: “One does not do business with an aggressor, with a warmonger like Putin.

As a former Federal Chancellor, you never act completely privately.

Especially not in a situation like the current one.

It is therefore long overdue to end business relations with Putin.

I expect that unequivocally.”

Schröder recently attracted attention because, before Russia's attack, he criticized Ukrainian demands for arms deliveries as "saber rattling".

Klingbeil, who was "right in the middle" in New York on September 11, made it clear several times afterwards that Schröder was not representing the opinion of the SPD.

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