Schröder defends Putin – “He is interested in ending the war”
Gerhard Schroeder, former Federal Chancellor. He is considered a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin
Source: Kay Nietfeld/dpa/archive
In an interview with the New York Times, Gerhard Schröder stressed that Russian President Vladimir Putin still has confidence in him. According to Schröder, Putin also wants to end the Ukraine war, it’s just “not that easy”.
AChancellor Gerhard Schröder has once again agreed to mediate in the Ukraine war. “I have always represented German interests. I do what I can. At least one side trusts me,” said the former leader of the SPD and today’s lobbyist for Russian energy companies.New York Times“. A peace solution must now be reached as quickly as possible. “I think this war was a mistake and I’ve always said so.”
Schröder traveled to Moscow in March to speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to his own statements, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) was not informed about the trip. The 78-year-old Schröder did not comment on the details of the conversation with Putin in the interview and only revealed this much: “What I can tell you is that Putin is interested in ending the war. But that’s not so easy. There are a few points that need to be clarified.”
The “New York Times” said it spoke twice with the former Chancellor in his hometown of Hanover. It is the first time since the beginning of the Ukraine war that the former chancellor, who has been a friend of Putin for many years, speaks out in an interview.
According to the report, Schröder met Putin in the Kremlin and sat with him – like Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron a few weeks earlier – at the now famous six-meter-long table. He also spoke to Putin’s adviser Vladimir Medinsky and the oligarch Roman Abramovich in Moscow.
Regarding the massacre in the Kiev suburb of Butscha, Schröder says: “It has to be investigated.” However, he does not believe that the orders came from Putin, but from lower levels, the newspaper quotes him as saying.
“You cannot isolate a country like Russia”
According to Schröder, the initiative for the trip to Moscow came from the Ukrainian side, and the contact was made by the Swiss media company Ringier. The Ukrainian parliamentarian Rustem Umerov informed him about the Ukrainian positions at a meeting in Istanbul before the trip to Moscow. After the conversation with Putin, there was another meeting with Umerov in the Turkish metropolis. After that the contact was broken off. But he was ready to speak to both sides again, Schröder told the New York Times.
He advocated maintaining relations with Russia despite the war of aggression against Ukraine. “You cannot isolate a country like Russia in the long term, either politically or economically,” he said. “German industry needs raw materials that Russia has. It’s not just about oil and gas, it’s also about rare earths. And these are raw materials that cannot be easily replaced.”
He doesn’t feel guilty about his close ties to Russia. “I’m not making a mea culpa (my fault) now,” he says. “It’s not my thing.”