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Gerhard Schröder, Federal Chancellor from 1998 to 2005, photographed in his office. © Michael Kappeler/dpa
Even more than two years after the Russian attack on Ukraine, former Chancellor Schröder is sticking to his friendship with Putin. He only gets applause from one side.
Hanover/Moscow - Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) can still imagine that his friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin can contribute to ending the war in Ukraine. “We have worked together sensibly for many years. Maybe that can still help to find a negotiated solution, I don’t see any other solution,” said Schröder in an interview with the German Press Agency.
The Kremlin in Moscow welcomed Schröder's statements. Good, constructive relationships on a personal level like those between Putin and Schröder could help solve the problem, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday, according to Russian news agencies. Putin and Schröder demonstrated this repeatedly when Schröder was in office. “This helped resolve the most difficult issues and ensure gradual development in bilateral developments.”
Schröder has been friends with Putin since he was chancellor from 1998 to 2005 and continues to work for the predominantly Russian companies that run the Nord Stream pipelines through the Baltic Sea. Although he described the Russian attack on Ukraine as a “fatal mistake,” he nevertheless did not break away from Putin. The SPD leadership therefore excluded him, but a party expulsion procedure against him failed.
Schröder does not want to forget “positive events” with Putin
When asked why he stuck to his friendship with the Russian president despite tens of thousands of deaths and Russian war crimes in the Ukraine war, Schröder replied in the dpa interview: "The fact is that this is one dimension that is another." It once seemed as if this personal relationship could be helpful in solving an extremely difficult political problem. “And that's why I think it would be completely wrong to forget everything that happened between us in politics in the past in terms of positive events. That’s not my style and I don’t do that.”
Schröder is obviously alluding to his mediation mission in March 2022 shortly after the Russian attack on Ukraine. At that time, according to his own statements, he first met the then Ukrainian parliamentarian and current Defense Minister Rustem Umerov in Istanbul and then traveled to Moscow for talks with Putin. But the initiative failed.
Former Chancellor calls speculation about Putin’s nuclear strike “nonsense”
Today, Schröder is calling for a new attempt at mediation at government level. “France and Germany must take the initiative. It is obvious that the war cannot end with a total defeat for one side or the other.”
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Schröder described speculation that Putin could start a nuclear war or attack a NATO country on the eastern flank as “nonsense.” In order to nip an escalation towards such scenarios in the bud and to prevent the population's alarm from increasing, serious consideration must be given to a solution to the conflict in addition to support for Ukraine, he emphasized.
Scholz: “Putin just has to stop his barbaric campaign”
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has not spoken to Putin on the phone since December 2022. In an interview with the “Märkische Allgemeine” published on Thursday, he pointed out that there had been repeated discussions with Moscow about, for example, the agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain, security at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the exchange of prisoners. “Right now a number of countries, including Ukraine, are discussing at the security advisor level what something could look like that would lead to a peace process,” he said. “But let me make one thing very clear: peace is possible at any time. Putin just needs to call off his barbaric campaign and withdraw troops.”
Kremlin spokesman Peskov made it clear that Moscow sees no desire among today's political actors in Germany to end the conflict. Germany was massively involved in the war under Chancellor Scholz (SPD). In Europe, the dominant approach is to “provoke Ukraine to fight to the last Ukrainian.” Moscow is observing the different points of view in Europe, but does not see any change in the situation. dpa