Pressure was mounting on Schroeder, who took over $600,000 a year in Rosneft in 2017, due to his ongoing business relations with Moscow. He is also the chairman of the shareholder committee for Nord Stream, the company that built the now controversial gas pipeline between Russia and Germany. This was a position he held just three weeks after he left office in 2005.
On Thursday, he was stripped of his office and staff, he reported Spokesperson for the German Green Party. The announcement came a day after representatives of three German political parties said in a statment The Parliament’s Budget Committee was making a new regulation linking the benefits to which former chancellors were entitled to whether they had any official duties.
Earlier this week, a draft resolution Presented by the four largest parties in the European Parliament, the EU legislature, “strongly” demanded that Schroeder resign from Rosneft. I explicitly asked the former German leader to follow in the footsteps of many other European politicians who had left Russian companies in light of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Marcus Ferber, one of the drafters of the resolution and a center-right member of the European Parliament, said: Reuters That a senior position in a major state-controlled corporation meant that Schroeder was “de facto cooperating closely with Russia”.
He added that his proposal was also intended to dissuade Schroeder from taking a position on the board of Gazprom, another major Russian energy company. Ferber has also called for Schroeder added to EU sanctions list and former German leader’s assets frozen. Schroeder could not be reached for comment.
The former chancellor has become the embodiment of the deep energy ties between Germany and Russia – a relationship that Berlin is now trying to curtail. Schroeder was instrumental in facilitating nord stream 2 dealIt is an $11 billion natural gas pipeline that connects Russian fields directly to Germany. It was a sticking point for Berlin until the current chancellor, Olaf Schulzsuspended ratification of the project two days before the start of the war in Ukraine.
In March, Schultz, who is in the same party as Schroeder, He told local media Cutting ties with Russian companies is the right course of action. Schulz said Schroeder’s commitments to Germany did not end when he left office.
Public anger directed at the former chancellor has increased since February 24, the day Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of his invasion. Schroeder has chosen not to distance himself from the Kremlin leader even as the Russian military faces international condemnation for it. atrocities committed against The civilian population of Ukraine.
at recent days Interview With the New York Times, Schroeder called Putin’s war a mistake and said the killings of Ukrainian civilians in Bucha should be investigated. But he refused to repudiate his friendship with Putin and said that the bloodshed in Bucha was not ordered by the Russian president.
Marie Ilyushina contributed to this report.
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