Former German chancellor Gerhard Schöder is on the list of candidates for the board of directors of the Russian concern Gazprom. The German media drew attention to this circumstance due to the fact that the company announced on Tuesday, May 24, that the head of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, Dmitry Patrushev, was included in the list, and published the entire list, which includes Schroeder. The former Chancellor of Germany became a candidate on February 4 this year. The new board of directors of the company will be elected on June 30 at the general meeting of shareholders, which will be held in St. Petersburg.
On May 20, it became known that Gerhard Schroeder left the board of directors of Rosneft, where he has worked since 2017. Earlier, the current head of the German government, Olaf Scholz, called on Schroeder to give up all his posts in Russian state-owned companies.
Criticism of Gerhard Schröder
The European Parliament on 19 May called include Schroeder on the sanctions list Russian oligarchs, if he, despite war in Ukraine will continue to hold on to his positions in Russian companies. On the same day, it became known that the Bundestag budget committee decided to reduce the cost of maintaining Schroeder’s office in the german parliament and the salaries of its employees. But the ex-chancellor retains the right to a pension and protection.
Since March, the Schroeder Bureau has lost employees who refused to work with the ex-chancellor in protest against his position on Russia and were transferred to other places in the Bundestag apparatus. Collaboration with Schroeder was also terminated by the long-term head of his office and speechwriter – after 20 years of joint work.
In addition, the Social Democratic Party of Germany is increasingly demanding to begin the procedure for expelling the ex-chancellor from the ranks of the SPD for his unwillingness to resign from positions in Russian companies and condemn the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
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Gerhard Schroeder: Former German Chancellor in the Service of Russia
Putin and Schroeder begin to steer together
It is difficult to say exactly when the personal friendship between Gerhard Schroeder and Vladimir Putin began. But their “energy cooperation” began before everyone’s eyes on April 11, 2005 at the Hannover Industrial Fair. There, the German Chancellor and the President of Russia not only got behind the wheel of a tractor together. In their presence and with their support, Gazprom and BASF launched the Nord Stream pipeline project.
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Gerhard Schroeder: Former German Chancellor in the Service of Russia
The post of chancellor or a post in Gazprom?
Three months later, on July 3, Schroeder participates in the celebration of the 750th anniversary of Kaliningrad. He has already launched a highly controversial early election procedure in Germany and will soon know whether he will remain Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany for another four years. I wonder if the question of who will take the top post in the Nord Stream operator company being created in Switzerland was discussed over coffee?
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Gerhard Schroeder: Former German Chancellor in the Service of Russia
Signing ten days before the election
Two months later, on September 8, both leaders are present in Berlin for the solemn signing of the formal agreement on Nord Stream. This happens exactly ten days before the early parliamentary elections, during which Schroeder loses power: Angela Merkel becomes Chancellor of Germany.
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Gerhard Schroeder: Former German Chancellor in the Service of Russia
New employee of Gazprom
Three months later, on December 9, 2005, the head of Gazprom, Alexei Miller, announces that Gerhard Schroeder will head the committee of shareholders of the company, which will eventually be renamed Nord Stream. His salary will be 250,000 euros per year. In the spring of 2006, the former chancellor will ban him in court from accusing him in Germany of having “given a contract” to a firm in which he soon moved to work.
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Gerhard Schroeder: Former German Chancellor in the Service of Russia
Not a wedding general at all
At the new job, Gerhard Schroeder has not only representative functions – as, for example, on September 6, 2011, during a visit with Vladimir Putin and Alexei Miller to the Portovaya compressor station near Vyborg, where the Nord Stream begins. It is believed that the ex-chancellor was very helpful in obtaining the necessary permits for the gas pipeline in the EU countries, in particular, in Scandinavia.
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Gerhard Schroeder: Former German Chancellor in the Service of Russia
Campaigning for South Stream
Schroeder is not in this picture, but he also contributed to the signing of the agreement on the South Stream pipeline on September 16, 2011. A year earlier, BASF announced that it did not intend to participate in this project, but Vladimir Putin instructed Alexei Miller to convince the German concern. The former Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany also participated in this work publicly and, presumably, behind the scenes. The BASF representative is pictured second from the left.
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Gerhard Schroeder: Former German Chancellor in the Service of Russia
Nord Stream: the deed is done
On November 8, 2011, Gerhard Schroeder (left) watches with satisfaction as German Chancellor Angela Mekel, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other officials in Lubmin near Greifswald symbolically release the first Russian gas to Germany via Nord Stream.
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Gerhard Schroeder: Former German Chancellor in the Service of Russia
New challenge: fight against sanctions
Since 2014, Schroeder, remaining the head of the Nord Stream shareholders’ committee, has actively condemned sanctions against Russia imposed by the European Union due to the annexation of Crimea and the unleashing of a war in eastern Ukraine. Thus, on October 1, 2014, the ex-Chancellor of Germany delivers a big speech criticizing the policies of Germany and the EU at the Day of Russia economic forum in East German Rostock.
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Gerhard Schroeder: Former German Chancellor in the Service of Russia
Unwavering Friendship
A friendship that even Ukrainian events cannot shake inspires the German graphic artist Klaus Stuttmann to draw in the Tagesspiegel newspaper. He is awarded the German Press Award for the best political cartoon in 2014. “Obama got it, the EU got it – I think now it’s time to give you the Nobel Peace Prize, too!” says the caricatured Schroeder, hugging Putin.
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Gerhard Schroeder: Former German Chancellor in the Service of Russia
Secret appointment in Nord Stream 2
On September 4, 2015, an agreement on the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is signed at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. Gerhard Schroeder as the head of the board of directors of his operator Nord Stream 2 is registered in Switzerland on July 29, 2016, but Gazprom keeps this appointment a secret for two months. The Russian media report on him only on October 5, citing the German press.
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Gerhard Schroeder: Former German Chancellor in the Service of Russia
Business trip to Paris
In Nord Stream 2, the ex-chancellor has more powers than in Nord Stream. But the main task remains the same: to provide the EU with political support for the project and to develop relations with its foreign participants. On April 24, 2017, in Paris, Gerhard Schroeder poses with Alexei Miller and Isabelle Kocher, CEO of the French company Engie, which joined Nord Stream 2.
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Gerhard Schroeder: Former German Chancellor in the Service of Russia
Career at Rosneft
In 2017, Gerhard Schröder makes a new breakthrough in his managerial career. On September 29, while remaining in two positions in the structures of Gazprom, he simultaneously becomes chairman of the board of directors of Rosneft, although this leads to a conflict of interest. After all, both companies compete with each other in the oil and gas business. At the same time, both are controlled by the state and thus by the Kremlin.
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Gerhard Schroeder: Former German Chancellor in the Service of Russia
Protest in Berlin
For a new position in Rosneft, the former chancellor is criticized a lot in Germany, and one of the non-governmental organizations is holding a protest action in Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate: an activist in a Putin mask pours symbolic gold coins into the pipeline, which Schroeder collects in a large bag, sitting on stand with the inscription “Crimea”.
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Gerhard Schroeder: Former German Chancellor in the Service of Russia
Jump into big oil
And here is how DW cartoonist Sergey Yolkin reacts to the appointment of Gerhard Schroeder as chairman of the board of directors of Rosneft. In January 2018, reports surface that the former chancellor is waiving his $500,000 annual salary (before taxes) from a Russian oil concern.
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Gerhard Schroeder: Former German Chancellor in the Service of Russia
Ukraine demands sanctions against Schroeder
On March 18, 2018, on the day of the presidential elections in Russia and on the territory of the annexed Crimea, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavel Klimkin from the pages of the German newspaper Bild calls for sanctions against the ex-Chancellor of Germany: “Gerhard Schroeder is Putin’s most important lobbyist in the world. Therefore it is necessary to check how the European Union can act in this situation.” Author: Andrey Gurkov
Author: Andrey Gurkov
