Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder will not renew his post at the Russian oil company Rosneft.
Around three months after the Russian troops invaded Ukraine, he is retiring after all: The 78-year-old Gerhard Schröder will not renew his position as chairman of the supervisory board of the Russian Rosneft, the company has announced. It was not yet known on Friday how his involvement with the operating companies of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines would continue. The partly state-owned Russian gas company Gazprom also offered Schröder a seat on the supervisory board starting in the summer.
The former SPD Chancellor (1998-2005) has long refused to part with his Russian business partners, his annual salary is said to be over half a million euros. Nor did he question his friendship with the Russian President in his only interview since the beginning of the war. Schröder adopted two Russian orphans in the noughties, and Vladimir Putin is said to have helped.
The withdrawal came after just a day before both the German and European parliaments tried to punish the former German chancellor for his role as a Russian gas lobbyist. The EU Parliament is calling for him and former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl to be prosecuted for their Rosneft deals. The Bundestag, in turn, canceled Schröder’s financing of an office and employees in the parliament building.
SPD exclusion applied for
As ex-Chancellor, he is legally entitled to do so. However, Schröder’s staff left him because he did not distance himself from the Russian regime. It was argued in the Bundestag that the financing of the office was no longer necessary. However, Schröder is allowed to keep the retirement salary of 8,300 euros per month. SPD Chancellor Olaf Scholz also emphasized this.
The ex-chancellor indicated legal action. His lawyers are likely to be busy: the SPD has also received more than a dozen applications to expel Schröder from the party. (zot)
(“Die Presse”, print edition, May 21, 2022)