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Ex-Chancellor Schröder: Close to Putin
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) has spoken out in favor of maintaining relations with Russia despite the war of aggression against Ukraine.
"You cannot isolate a country like Russia in the long term, either politically or economically," he told the New York Times.
German industry needs raw materials from Russia.
“It's not just about oil and gas, it's also about rare earths.
And these are raw materials that cannot be easily replaced.«
Schröder spoke out in detail for the first time after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In Germany he is criticized for not distancing himself from Russia and its President Vladimir Putin.
Several Social Democrats have already called for his exclusion from the party.
In the New York Times, Schröder showed no guilt.
"I'm not going to go mea culpa," he says.
"That's not my thing." Schröder is close friends with Putin and works for Russian energy companies, for example as the head of the supervisory board at the Russian energy giant Rosneft.
According to the New York Times, Schröder defended the German energy policy of the past decades, which has made the country dependent on Russian gas.
He was surprised at the heated debate in Germany.
“They've all gone through this in the last 30 years.
And suddenly they all know better,” said Schröder.
He can only imagine resigning from his post at Russian energy companies if Russia cuts off gas to Europe.
However, he does not expect such a scenario.
Schröder: Putin wants to end the war
Schröder emphasized that the war was "a mistake."
That's what he "always said."
And he knows "that Putin is interested in ending the war."
But that is “not so easy”.
There are “a few points that need to be clarified”.
Schröder did not give any details in this context.
Schröder traveled to Moscow in March to talk to Putin.
According to the report, Schröder was received in the Kremlin like a head of state.
He therefore spoke to the Russian President at a now famous six-meter-long giant table.
According to Schröder, the initiative for the trip to Moscow came from the Ukrainian side, and the Swiss media company Ringier established the contact.
The Ukrainian parliamentarian Rustem Umerov informed him about the Ukrainian positions at a meeting in Istanbul before the trip to Moscow.
role as broker
After the conversation with Putin, there was another meeting with Umerov, after which contact was broken off.
Schröder said he was ready to speak to both sides again.
Regarding the massacre in the Kiev suburb of Butscha, Schröder said: "It has to be investigated." However, he does not believe that the orders came from Putin, but from lower levels.
The newspaper's Germany correspondent reportedly met Schröder twice in his hometown of Hanover.
The former chancellor said he still had the trust of Russia, but not of Germany.
The correspondent also described how the ex-chancellor showed her a cellphone photo of a visit to Putin in Sochi on the Black Sea last fall.
At that time, Putin was already deploying his troops on the border with Ukraine.
The photo shows Putin in ice hockey gear, Schröder in a blue shirt and jacket, both smiling.
When asked what the two were talking about, Schröder said: "Football".
sms/dpa
