“For many years we have worked together intelligently. Maybe it can still help to find a negotiated solution, I don’t see any other way,” Mr. Schroder said in an interview with dpa.
He has been friends with Putin since 1998-2005. was chancellor, and continues to work for Russian Nord Stream gas pipeline companies across the Baltic Sea. G. Schroder called Russia’s attack in Ukraine a “fatal mistake” but did not condemn V. Putin. As a result, the leadership of the Social Democratic Party sidelined him, but efforts to remove him from the party failed.
When asked why he maintains a friendship with the Russian president, despite tens of thousands of deaths and Russian war crimes in Ukraine, Mr. Schroder replied: “True, it’s a different dimension.”
Mr. Schroder said that at one time it seemed that these personal connections could be useful in solving a very difficult political problem. “That’s why I think it would be completely wrong to forget all the positive things that happened between us in the past in politics. It’s not my style and I don’t do it that way,” he said.
Mr. Schroder was referring to his mediation mission in 2022. in March, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine. He said then that he first met with the then member of the Ukrainian Parliament and the current Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov in Istanbul and then traveled to Moscow for negotiations with V. Putin. However, this initiative failed.
Tags: German Chancellor Schroder calls negotiations Putin offers services
