Schröder and Putin: Why are you friends?

Russian President Putin and former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder

Close confidants: President Putin and then Chancellor Schröder at the German-Russian consultations in Weimar in April 2002.

(Photo: imago/Eckehard Schulz)

Ex-Chancellor and gas lobbyist Gerhard Schröder refuses to be persuaded as to who he is allowed to be friends with. He has maintained a close friendship with the Russian President since his days in power. Now has itself Schröder apparently with Putin in Moscow on Thursday evening met, reports the news magazine Politico. He wanted to mediate peacemaking in the Russia-Ukraine war. Kremlin spokesman Peskov did not confirm the meeting between the two.

Since the war of aggression once morest Ukraine began, Schröder’s closeness to Putin and his role as a lobbyist have been increasingly criticized. “There were many mistakes – on both sides,” he commented on Russia’s Ukraine war on the LinkedIn social network.

Schröder’s friendship with Putin has given him lucrative seats on the supervisory boards of Russian gas companies. Now Schröder is paying for it with his credibility. How did this dubious male friendship begin?

How Schröder and Putin met in the sauna

The private and the political have been mixed up since the beginning of the relationship between Gerhard Schröder and Putin. They allegedly spent their first meeting in a Russian steam bath, the two men reported on Russian television. the ZDF documentary “Putin once morest the world” shows this section.

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When it suddenly started to burn in the steam bath, Putin is said to have said: “Gerhard, we have to get out of here, we are on fire.” Schröder replied: “No, I want to finish my beer first”. So he did.

In the early 2000s, Putin still looks like a reformer

A few weeks following his election as president in 2000, Vladimir Putin visited Gerhard Schröder for the first time. Schröder is impressed by Putin, from whom the West is hoping for reforms in Russia at the time. In 2001, Putin gave a speech in the Bundestag, in German. Because Russia’s president has spoken fluent German since childhood. He was also stationed as a KGB agent in East Germany. Schröder and Putin can exchange ideas smoothly.

As chancellor, Schröder maintained a close relationship with Russia

Putin and Schröder signing a joint statement on the strategic partnership between the two countries in the fields of education, science and innovation in April 2005.

(Foto: imago stock&people)

Christmas, holidays, birthdays together

At the beginning of 2001, the two statesmen and their wives spent the Orthodox Christmas together. Schröder and Putin go sledding together in the snow. More meetings followed in the years to come, and they often invited each other to birthday parties.

Vladimir Putin used his contacts to help the Schröder-Köpf couple adopt two children from Russia in 2004 and 2006.

There are also intersections in the family history. Both lost a close family member, Schröder his father and Putin his brother, in World War II. In addition, both come from humble backgrounds from which they have worked their way up.

Vladimir Putin, the “flawless democrat”?

In the ARD program “Beckmann” in 2004, Chancellor Schröder affirmed that he saw Putin as a flawless democrat. At the same time, Putin had already secured far-reaching control over democratic institutions and made the work of the opposition in Russia more difficult. Subsequent criticism of Schröder’s statement, even years later, did not lead to him qualifying it.

In the spring of the same year, Gerhard Schröder invited Putin as a guest to his 60th birthday in Hanover. Putin comes by and brings a Cossack choir from Russia.

Gerhard Schröder, Gazprom and the Nord Stream Pipeline

In September 2005, then Chancellor Schröder and Putin formalized the construction of a Baltic Sea pipeline. Nord Stream 1 is to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany. The pipeline is highly controversial as it bypasses the Eastern European countries as transit countries.

Shortly therefollowing, the SPD loses the federal election and Angela Merkel becomes chancellor. Gerhard Schröder is looking for a new job – but not for long. As early as December it was announced that Schröder would become chairman of the supervisory board at Nord Stream AG, which is 51 percent owned by the Russian company Gazprom. Indignant criticism hailed from all parties.

Pretty much best friends?

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder laughs as he stands next to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Berlin, September 8, 2005. A contract for the construction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea had previously been agreed.

(Photo: dpa)

Party with Putin: Gerhard Schröder and the Crimean Crisis

In 2014, Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. A civil war then broke out in eastern Ukraine. The West is reacting with economic sanctions once morest Russia. Gerhard Schröder calls for understanding for the breach of international law on the Russian side.

Schröder’s friendship with Putin does not appear to be suffering from the Crimea crisis. On the contrary: Schröder is celebrating his 70th birthday in style in St. Petersburg. Also at the party: Vladimir Putin. But they didn’t talk regarding politics, says Schröder.

Schroeder welcomes Putin

Schröder celebrates his 70th birthday at the Yusupovyky Palace in St. Petersburg. The celebration was organized by the gas company Nord Stream.

(Photo: dpa)

“Gas-Gerd” – Russia’s most important lobbyist?

In 2014 and 2017 Gerhard Schröder organized targeted meetings in Berlin between gas lobbyists and German politicians. Prominent guest at one of these meetings: Brigitte Zypries, SPD Economics Minister at the time. Schröder has also been head of the supervisory board of the Russian energy group Rosneft since September 2017.

When Putin was re-elected in 2018, Schröder congratulated him in Moscow on his fourth term.

Don’t be afraid of autocrats

Gerhard Schröder, former German Chancellor, shakes hands with Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, at his inauguration in 2018 at the Kremlin.

(Photo: dpa)

Despite the Ukraine war: Schröder continues to work for Rosneft

According to his LinkedIn posts, Schröder probably does not support the war in Ukraine. But Schröder has so far not shown a clear stance towards the Russian government. Schröder continues to work in senior positions at Nord Stream and Rosneft. So far, he has not turned down the offer of a seat on Gazprom’s board of directors.

In Germany, however, the mood once morest Gerhard Schröder has now shifted: According to a survey, 75 percent of Germans are demandingthat his pension should be cut if he doesn’t give up his jobs in the boardrooms of Russian state-owned companies. His office workers have already fired him. Parts of the SPD are calling for an exclusion process.

Coffee in Kaliningrad

Then-Chancellor Schröder and President Putin at a meeting at a hotel in Svetlogorsk, in Russia’s Kaliningrad region.

(Foto: imago images/ITAR-TASS)