The former German chancellor also wants to make an attempt Gerhard Schröder. Great friend of Vladimir Putindisowned in Germany for not distancing himself from the Kremlin after the invasion of Ukraine, flew a Monday Istanbul to meet a Ukrainian delegation, then he waited two days and left towards fly to meet the Russian president and try to mediate. To reveal the background is Politicowhich cites a source closely involved in this evidence of negotiated. Because of this it was, according to the report of the newspaper: Kiev would have asked Schröder to try to negotiate with Putin to obtain at least a ceasefire. An initiative managed by Rustem Umerov, parliamentarian and member of the Ukrainian delegation that participated in the talks in Belarus. But of which Berlin was unawareat least according to the reconstruction of the image: a version corroborated by the “I do not intend to comment” with which the current chancellor Olaf Scholz answered a question from reporters on the sidelines of the European summit of Versailles.
Schröderon the other hand, he is still one of the few who can be received by Putin in Moscow: he is chairman of the supervisory board of the oil giant Rosneftis at the forefront of the pipeline project Nord Stream 2 and has not given up on his next entry into the supervisory board Of Gazprom. All of which he did not want to renounce even after the Russian attack on Kiev, despite the fact that he has been in Germany for a week strong pressure. The former chancellor, on the other hand, spoke only once publicly on the conflict, limiting himself to asking for an end to the war as soon as possible but without reaching condemn President Putin. An attitude that has earned him a lot of criticism, has prompted some of his most loyal collaborators to resign from the tasks they carried out at his side and led the Spd to formulate a real ultimatum in his regards.
The ties with Moscow, however, are well established, dating back a short time after 2005, when Schröder left the chancellery after 7 years. Since then he has had one profitable career gives lobbyist always in the field of energy, culminating in the project of Nord Stream 2recently frozen by the German government as the first response to Putin’s threats (which later became real). Precisely for these reasons, however, the Ukrainian government would have identified Schröder as the right person to try to build “a bridge” with Putin, writes Politico. The first contacts last Friday, then traveling to Turkey to meet Umerov and receive from Kiev i key points to discuss with Putin. Finally, the trip to Moscow postponed to Wednesday.
According to the report by Politicohe was even the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to mention the name of Schröder to seek the path of negotiations with the Kremlin. Sources cited by the newspaper image however, they ensure that these initiatives have not been agreed with the Chancellor’s government Olaf Scholzwhich would not have been not even informedas on the other hand the Social Democratic Party belonging to Schröder. “I do not intend to comment” was Scholz’s laconic reply to those who asked him for a comment on the mission of his predecessor. Among the European chancelleries, the name of another former chancellor is much more popular, Angela Merkel, as possible mediators. Who knows if it is not Schröder, who knows well the (at least economic) interests at stake and President Putin, who is able to find a first foothold to really get the negotiations started.