Connections to Russia “must not be cut,” says So-yeon Schröder-Kim
WELT special – Attacks on Kharkiv, Cherson and Mariupol
Russian troops have again attacked major cities. How much longer can Kyiv defend itself and what will aid from the West bring? Follow all developments here and at WELT on TV.
Ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has come under heavy criticism for his closeness to Vladimir Putin and his lucrative posts with Russian corporations. Now his wife So-yeon Schröder-Kim is speaking out on social media – and rules out her husband’s role as a mediator.
Dhe former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) is considered a long-time friend of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, he is the head of the supervisory board at the Russian state energy company Rosneft and also holds management positions in the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipeline projects.
This has repeatedly brought him sharp criticism, and not just since Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Most recently, all employees of his former chancellor’s office resigned, and an SPD district association applied for his expulsion from the party.
Last Thursday, Schröder called on the government in Moscow on the online network LinkedIn to end the war in Ukraine as quickly as possible. But there was no talk of personal consequences. Now his wife So-yeon Schröder-Kim is on Instagram commented on a possible mediator role of her husband.
“Many people, like you, contacted me personally if my husband could talk to Mr. Putin about the war in Ukraine,” she wrote on the social network. “The war and the associated suffering for the people in Ukraine must be ended as soon as possible. This is clearly the responsibility of the Russian government,” she stressed.
However, the existing “political, economic and civil society connections” between Germany and Russia should “not be severed”. “Despite the current dramatic situation”, they are the “basis for a hope that we all have: that a dialogue about peace and security on our continent will be possible again.”