Parties: Schröder defends friendship with Putin – Kremlin pleased

Even more than two years after the Russian attack on Ukraine, former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is sticking to his friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In an interview with the German Press Agency shortly before his 80th birthday, he justified this by saying that his good connections with the Kremlin could perhaps help end the war in Ukraine: “We have worked together sensibly for many years. Maybe it can that still help to find a negotiated solution, I don’t see any other solution.”

At the same time, he made it clear in the interview that he did not want to be excluded from the party by the SPD leadership. “There are still a lot of letters where people don’t understand certain attacks against me,” he said. “So in this respect I believe that I still live in the middle of social democracy and I want to continue to do so.”

Friendship with Putin: “A dimension that is another”

Schröder turns 80 on April 7th. He has been friends with Putin since his chancellorship from 1998 to 2005 and continues to work for the majority Russian companies that run the Nord Stream pipelines through the Baltic Sea. Although he described the Russian attack on Ukraine as a “fatal mistake,” he nevertheless did not break away from Putin. The SPD leadership therefore excluded him, but a party expulsion procedure against him failed.

When asked why he stuck to his friendship with the Russian president despite tens of thousands of deaths and Russian war crimes in the Ukraine war, Schröder replied in the dpa interview: “The fact is that this is one dimension that is another.” It once seemed as if this personal relationship could be helpful in solving an extremely difficult political problem. “And that’s why I think it would be completely wrong to forget everything that happened between us in politics in the past in terms of positive events. That’s not my style and I don’t do that either.”

Former Chancellor calls speculation about Putin’s nuclear strike “nonsense”

In March 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Schröder tried to mediate between the two sides and traveled to Istanbul and from there to Moscow for talks with a Ukrainian parliamentarian. But the mission failed. Today, Schröder is calling for a new attempt at mediation at government level. “France and Germany would have to take the initiative. It is obvious that the war cannot end with a total defeat for one side or the other.”

Schröder described speculation that Putin could start a nuclear war or attack a NATO country on the eastern flank as “nonsense.” In order to nip an escalation towards such scenarios in the bud and to prevent the population’s alarm from increasing, serious consideration must be given to a solution to the conflict in addition to support for Ukraine, he emphasized.

Kremlin reacts happily to Schröder’s statements

The Kremlin in Moscow welcomed Schröder’s statements. Good, constructive relationships on a personal level like those between Putin and Schröder could help solve problems, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Russian news agencies. Putin and Schröder demonstrated this repeatedly when Schröder was in office. “This helped resolve the most difficult issues and ensure gradual development in bilateral developments.”

The SPD leadership is likely to be less happy about its ex-party leader’s renewed commitment to friendship with the Kremlin leader. The chairmen Lars Klingbeil and Saskia Esken have broken off all contact with Schröder. He will also no longer be invited to SPD party conferences – as was usual for former party leaders. Esken justified this last year with the words: “I can no longer recognize Gerhard Schröder, the former chancellor and former party chairman. I see him as a businessman who pursues his business interests.”

Schröder only takes party leadership “politically seriously to a limited extent”

In the interview, Schröder answered no to the question of whether the exclusion hurt him. “If my wife were to forget my birthday, that would hurt me,” he said and then asked: “Should I change my fundamental relationship with German Social Democracy, which is and will remain the oldest democratic party that has ever existed in this country? “Make me dependent on people who I can only take politically seriously to a limited extent?”

In the interview, however, he complained that there is no longer a picture of him hanging on the floor of the Willy Brandt House where the chairmen have their offices. “That’s interesting. The SPD has to be careful about that too. You know where that was the case?” he asked, and then gave the answer himself: “In the communist parties of the past, of course, the respective leaders were “When they were gone, they were erased from the party’s history. So I don’t think the SPD will go that far.”

Schröder emphasized that he would remain a Social Democrat as long as he was allowed to do so. It is well known that he does not have a particularly close relationship with the current party leadership. “But you don’t have to have it to remain a social democrat.”