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3.5.22
A former German chancellor who was cheered for his refusal to take part in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and admired for his sweeping reforms of the country's ailing economy has become persona non grata at home because of his unflagging loyalty to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Gerhard Schroeder, who served from 1998 until 2005, when he lost power to Angela Merkel in a close election, quickly pivoted to a post as a well-paid lobbyist for the Russian energy empire tied to his friend Putin. The arrangement raised eyebrows. But it wasn’t until Schroeder, 77, raised criticism of Ukraine’s “saber-rattling” last month, just before Russia's invasion, coupled with his subsequent refusal to distance himself from Putin, that his ties have become a source of national embarrassment. Many who view Schroeder as a Putin apologist are calling from him to step down from his executive positions with Gazprom, Rosneft and the Nord Stream gas pipeline projects. “It’s not alright for Gerhard Schroeder to hold these positions, and I think he should give them up,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a TV interview Thursday, shortly after Schroeder's staff resigned en masse and he was unceremoniously removed from an honorary leadership position at his favorite soccer club, Borussia Dortmund. Schroeder has also been fired from several corporate oversight posts.
Many Germans had long argued that lasting peace and security in Europe were possible only by maintaining close ties to Russia. For some, that meant backing Moscow's contention that NATO was pressing Russia with its agreements to grant membership to nations once within the Kremlin's sphere of Eastern European influence. Many Germans were thus willing to look away from Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea and ignore Ukrainian objections over the Nord Stream gas project connecting Russia to Germany beneath the Baltic Sea — pipelines that robbed Ukraine of badly needed gas transit fees. Juergen Hogrefe, who wrote a best-selling 2002 biography on Schroeder, said the ex-chancellor has tarnished his legacy by failing to distance himself from Putin after the war started — unfathomable behavior to the millions of Germans who thought wars in Europe would never happen again and who are now widely backing their government’s rush to reequip its armed forces, polls show. Despite the worsening ostracism, there are some in Germany, . especially in Schroeder's center-left Social Democrat party, who harbor hopes that he might be able to use his influence with Putin to help establish a ceasefire or even peace. "I think it’s an illusion to think that Schroeder has any influence at all over Putin now, He turned himself into a ‘useful idiot’ for Putin and ruined his own reputation. It’s doubtful that there’s any role for Schroeder. He’s yesterday’s man.”
Germany ostracizes dignitary, leading artists who remain cozy with Putin
Former German Chancellor and Putin crony Gerhard Schröder (1998-2005).
I've complained about the wannabe oligarch Schroeder for at least a decade.
Germany is finally waking up now that Angela Merkel is gone.
Don't forget Willy Brandt who started the Ostpolitik sellout to Russia by the SPD. You can be comforted now that the Traffic Light coalition government in Berlin has decided the outstanding questions you raise -- in total favor for NATO, EU, USA. It's final now if you don't know already.Germany's politics was a holdover from the late Cold War, with cautious but steady relations with Moscow, this intensified in the 90s with talks about increased energy cooperation and crystalized in the early 2000s with Nordstream 1. The line held by Kohl, Schröder and Merkel is no more.
However Germany is still in identity conundrum, Germany doesn't know what it wants to be. The Germans reject the idea that they are a Great Power, due to it being tied to the World Wars and the Nazi regime. But Germany is a Great Power, no matter how much they don't want to be one.
Schröder is not only a wannabe, he's also a has-been.Germany ostracizes dignitary, leading artists who remain cozy with Putin
Former German Chancellor and Putin crony Gerhard Schröder (1998-2005).
I've complained about the wannabe oligarch Schroeder for at least a decade.
Germany is finally waking up now that Angela Merkel is gone.
Just to add that Germany (AND Austria) were already receiving Russian (piped) gas at the end of the 1970s. A result of a deal by which Russia received German seamless pipes ( something it could not produce by itself at the time) in exchange for gas deliveries (thru those very pipes, of course).Germany's politics was a holdover from the late Cold War, with cautious but steady relations with Moscow, this intensified in the 90s with talks about increased energy cooperation and crystalized in the early 2000s with Nordstream 1. The line held by Kohl, Schröder and Merkel is no more.
At the height of the cold war Germany certainly knew very well what it wanted to be, namely NOT the nuclear playing field it was designed as by both sides of the combative coin. With all possible Russian incursions westwards being planned to storm thru Germany's Fulda gap, NATO response logically was to make not only that part of Germany the area of tactical nuclear counter-strikes, what with NATO forces of tanks and other units predicted to be hopelessly outnumbered in any sense of "conventional" warfare, but to lay waste to the whole country as the price that simply would have to be paid.However Germany is still in identity conundrum, Germany doesn't know what it wants to be. The Germans reject the idea that they are a Great Power, due to it being tied to the World Wars and the Nazi regime. But Germany is a Great Power, no matter how much they don't want to be one.
one for sure, all our traitors will pay ....Germany ostracizes dignitary, leading artists who remain cozy with Putin
Former German Chancellor and Putin crony Gerhard Schröder (1998-2005).
I've complained about the wannabe oligarch Schroeder for at least a decade.
Germany is finally waking up now that Angela Merkel is gone.
No matter how you slice that it's still baloney. With sauerkraut.^^^^^^^^
Yet just another Germany bashing rant of rabid proportions, with the pompous verbosity encountered in no way serving to conceal the utter ignorance on Germany, its postwar history, the composition of its people's outlook and the political outlook born from its geo-political position in the cold war of facing the grindstone in its particular rock and hard place scenario.
There are plenty of reasons to criticize Germany for from 1945 onwards, yet the poster appears not to know a single one of them.
The address of Brandt kneeling in Warsaw being, as just one example, so stupid in its assessment of reason that it requires no further address than calling it just that.
Just to add that Germany (AND Austria) were already receiving Russian (piped) gas at the end of the 1970s. A result of a deal by which Russia received German seamless pipes ( something it could not produce by itself at the time) in exchange for gas deliveries (thru those very pipes, of course). [...]
The pattern of those who are unaccepting of criticism is to deny and then to mislead while making ad hominem throwaways.That there have always been parts of his party refusing to disassociate themselves from him [Schroeder] remains undisputed, yet they represent neither the German people nor the SPD as such.
It's good to see you're being honest.Thanks Chagos - to be honest I become too lazey to deal with his verbal diarrhoea
No matter how you slice that it's still baloney. With sauerkraut.
Indeed it's the constant pattern of zero specifics that might prove the thesis.
The first paragraph is the repeating proof, ie, a drive by hit and run burst of arbitrary pronouncements and summary declarations. Never anything specific. Only constant bellyaching by the lame and lazy.
.................that I usually ignore in the "talking-to-hisself-billboarding-thread" , but seeing how it now overflows into elsewhere..............Mindless prattle ....
.................that I usually ignore in the "talking-to-hisself-billboarding-thread" , but seeing how it now overflows into elsewhere..............
Trying and desperately so to disconnect Schroederovsky from Nord Stream 1&2 is a blind fool's errand.Large support for NS2 never equated to support for Schröder, once he showed to become the unprincipled scum who called Putin a spotless democrat.
But when one is as clueless about matters one spouts forth upon as is the poster in question here, intelligent appraisal of what is written cannot be expected.
Dr. Ad Hominem posts again.Trying and desperately so to make believe I claimed something that I clearly did NOT (as anyone even remotely possessed of reading comprehension can determine) is a blind fool's errand.
It is also disgustingly dishonest and cannot be hidden in whatever gish gallop of horse manure the so inclined wish to engage in presenting.
The support for NS2 and the lack of it for the guy's unprincipled shenanigans are two completely different issues. It takes much prevarication to try and paint any different picture.
It also demonstrates who here is proceeding up the flagpole and what, in that process, is shown more and more.
It's clear you missed it after you wrote it.post #15 and #18 bear repeating, but the best response here is not to react to this repetitive ranting of having "watched the news" in juxtaposition to someone actually knowing the country, having lived there and speaking its language.
Apologies to the OP for my having contributed to this manure fest even having arisen, while I actually share the disdain for the likes of the Gazprom fluffer and all those like him.
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