Gerhard Schröder will not take up a position on the Gazprom supervisory board. The SPD politician makes this clear on “Linkedin”. He had waived the nomination a long time ago. The reasons for the waiver are now speculated.

Former Chancellor Schröder has been heavily criticized for his connections to Russia. Now he has announced that he has no plans to join the board of energy giant Gazprom. He waived the nomination a long time ago and also informed the company of this, Schröder wrote on Tuesday evening on the online portal “Linkedin”. The authenticity of the contribution was confirmed to the German Press Agency from Schröder’s environment.

Gazprom nominated Schröder for a post on the committee in early February, shortly before the Russian attack on Ukraine. In an interview published by the New York Times in April, the former SPD leader left open whether he would accept the nomination.

The Russian career of Gerhard Schröder

The former chancellor had held various posts for the Russian energy industry over the years: a seat on the supervisory board of the energy group Rosneft and activities for the Gazprom subsidiaries Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2. On Friday, Rosneft announced that Schröder was resigning from the supervisory board. The ex-chancellor announced that it was impossible for him to extend his term of office.

The FDP politician Florian Toncar tweeted: “Rosneft, Gazprom – Gerhard Schröder cuts some connections. Whether through pangs of conscience or the threat of sanctions remains to be seen. Long before the war of aggression, supervisory board activities questionable closeness to Putin were incompatible with the values ​​​​of the Federal Republic of Germany. Nothing to praise about it ‘ wrote the Treasury Secretary.

Scholz rejects sanctions against Schröder

After the Rosneft decision, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) asked Schröder to stop further activities for companies from Russia. The Bundestag had previously cut his office and employees in response to his continued work for Russian companies during the war against Ukraine. The European Parliament had also called for EU sanctions against Schröder, which Chancellor Scholz rejected. At the same time, there are still procedures in the SPD to exclude him from the party.

Schröder’s party friend, Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD), had told the “Handelsblatt” shortly before Schröder’s renunciation of his commitment to Gazprom became known: “Holding on to the previous mandates was stubbornness, accepting a new mandate on the supervisory board of a Russian one energy company would be a provocation.”

Friendship with Vladimir Putin

Schröder has been close friends with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin since his time as chancellor (1998 to 2005). In March he traveled to Moscow to talk to Putin. In the only interview so far in the “New York Times” after the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine, Schröder made it clear that he was still willing to use the good connections to mediate between Russia and Ukraine. “I’ve always represented German interests. I’m doing what I can. At least one side trusts me,” said the former SPD leader.