MOSCOW (dpa-AFX) – According to the Kremlin, former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) is in the Russian capital Moscow. According to the Russian news agency Interfax on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov did not rule out that Schröder could also get in touch with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two politicians share a friendship. “As far as we know, yes, he is actually in Moscow,” said Peskow, according to reports that the SPD politician was in the capital.
“There are no meetings as such, but we do not rule out contact,” said the Kremlin spokesman. Recently there have been “less active” contacts between Putin and Schröder.
Schröder’s wife, Soyeon Schröder-Kim, confirmed to “Spiegel” on Tuesday that her husband is currently in Moscow. “RTL” had already reported on Schröder’s visit on Monday. When asked if he was meeting Putin, the former chancellor replied, according to the “RTL” report: “I’m going on vacation here for a few days. Moscow is a beautiful city.”
Schröder and Putin jointly launched the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline project in 2005. The most important supply line for Germany is now being filled less and less with gas by the Russian side as part of the sanctions in the Ukraine war. Putin has been criticized for using the gas pipeline as a geopolitical weapon; Schröder, on the other hand, had always defended it as a purely economic project.
Schröder has long been criticized for his closeness to Putin and the Russian oil and gas industry. Even after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, many comrades in his party are of the opinion that Schröder has not sufficiently distanced himself from Russia. In the first week of August, the arbitration commission of the SPD sub-district Region Hannover wants to decide on a possible party expulsion. However, the legal hurdles for a party penalty or even an exclusion are very high./mau/DP/jha