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The leaders of the German Social Democrats are demanding the removal of former Chancellor Gerhard Schroder from their ranks over their refusal to judge the Russian occupation of Ukraine and Vladimir Putin.
He also made it clear in a recent interview quoted by the Guardian that he does not intend to leave the posts he holds in Russian energy companies due to Moscow’s aggression. “Gerhard Schroder has long been behaving only as a businessman, and we should not consider him a statesman or a former chancellor,” said Saskia Esken, one of the leaders of the SPD, the party of current Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Esken in an interview given to a German radio, expressed regret that Schroeder refuses to leave the controversial posts, a gesture that she says is necessary to save his reputation as a successful head of the German government. The possibility of his removal has already been proposed. “These actions are based on the SPD statute, but it is understood that there are obstacles to leaving the party,” Esken explained.
Schroder, who served as Germany’s chancellor from 1998 to 2005, is under pressure to step down from Russian energy companies, and publicly condemn Vladimir Putin’s actions, but has so far done none of that. In February, he was nominated to join the board of directors at Gazprom, the Russian state-owned energy company behind the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Schröder has long had good relations with Putin and has held senior management positions as on Nord Stream as well as Rosneft.
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