Schroeder, 78, was stripped of his right to public office in May amid growing frustration over his refusal to distance himself from Russian President Vladimir Putin following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The file, seen by DPA, said the decision to close Mr Schroeder’s office and redeploy his remaining staff was “rather reminiscent of an autocratic princely state in the way they were done” and should not have been allowed in a democratic constitutional country. While chancellor from 1998 to 2005, Mr Schröder forged the relationship with Putin that came to overshadow much of his career. Schroeder called Putin a close personal friend and they spent many hours chatting over drinks. He traveled to Moscow in late July for a meeting with Mr Putin, after which he said Russia wanted a negotiated solution to the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described Mr Schroeder’s behavior as “disgusting”. A champion of the Nord Stream pipeline that carries Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, Mr. Schroeder is chairman of the shareholder committee of Nord Stream AG, operator of the pipeline majority-owned by Russia’s Gazprom, according to LinkedIn. After heavy criticism, Mr Schroeder stepped down in May from the board of Russian state oil company Rosneft and declined a nomination for a board position at Gazprom.
