After their mandate, some Western elected officials and heads of state embark on an unexpected retraining in the private sector, sometimes for the benefit of authoritarian regimes. The American magazine Foreign Policy describes a factor in the loss of confidence in democracy and explores ways to put an end to it.
At the beginning of February, when tension on the Ukrainian border was already at its height, the news of the appointment of the former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder to a management post of the Russian energy group Gazprom did not pass. unnoticed. This entry into the service of a firm placed under the tight control of the Kremlin is “emblematic of the strategy led by Moscow to weaken transatlantic unity”note Foreign Policy, in an article published a few days before the Russian offensive in Ukraine. Distraught over the career choices of some former heads of state, the American magazine explores ways to control this transfer window that relocates the living forces of democracies into the bosom of authoritarian regimes.
“Any expectation that ethics or shame alone might dissuade Western politicians to sign contracts with authoritarian companies, as Gerhard Schröder has just done, is dead and buried”, poses the title, lingering on the course of the sociodemocrat. For several years, Gerhard Schröder was considered the lobbyist for Russian energy in Germany – defending the construction of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines. Already chairman of the board of directors of Rosneft, the first Russian oil group, it is not known where will his rise within Gazprom stop. What is certain is that his pro-Putin positions in terms of geopolitics accentuate Berlin’s malaise.
In the wake of the Russian offensive, Gerhard Schröder half-heartedly criticized Vladimir Putin’s action while asking the Europeans not to impose too heavy sanctions on Russia and insisting on the mistakes made “on both sides” in this conflict, reported the German newspaper The mirror.
“Schroederization”
Foreign Policy believes that Gerhard Schröder is the
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Founded in 1970 with the aim of “to stimulate debate on the essential questions of American foreign policy”, Foreign Policy was an academic journal for a long time before becoming a bimonthly in 2000. Its ambition today
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