Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has become a gas lobbyist and a second Vladimir Putin.
But who helped him strengthen ties between Berlin and Moscow? This question is answered by the authors of The Moscow Connection, journalists from the German edition of FAZ Reinhard Bingener and Markus Wehner.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of Germany. While still foreign minister, he chose a pro-Russian course, while human rights issues in Russia were “rather secondary” for him.
Heino Wiese, former Honorary Consul of Russia in Hannover. Not only did he manage Schroeder’s election campaigns, but he was also “actually the manager of Moscow connections in the SPD.” Vize helped the Russian oligarch Alexei Mordashov enter the TUI Group, which in turn promoted the interests of the Salzgitter AG concern involved in the construction of Nord Stream.
Gunther Papenburg, head of the construction company GP Günter Papenburg AG. Previously, he owned shares in Salzgitter AG, owned by Gerhard Schröder, then Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, which supplied pipes for Nord Stream 2. Papenburg accompanied Schroeder on trips and “did a lot of business with his group of companies in the post-Soviet space.”
Sigmar Gabriel, a former vice-chancellor of Germany, was a confidant of Schröder. What bound them together was “a tendency to forget the limits of what is appropriate in the pursuit of material prosperity.” Since 2013, when Gabriel was appointed Minister of Economy of Germany, “dependence on Russian gas has been recklessly expanded.”
Manuela Schwesig, Minister-President of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. She was the initiator of the creation of the Climate and Ecology Protection Fund, which helped Nord Stream 2 JSC bypass EU sanctions on the construction of the gas pipeline.
The authors of The Moscow Connection conclude that “German business and the leadership of the SPD denied the fact that Putin initially viewed energy resources as a means of geopolitical influence, in fact, as a weapon.”
It is Schroeder and his entourage who bear “the long-term responsibility for the fact that Germany was blind to this threat, which ended in a terrible war for Ukraine.”
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.