Index – Abroad – Russia’s War in Ukraine – Index’s Thursday News Brief

The former German chancellor defied domestic protests last week Visited again To the Russian capital, said severe In a statement to the German press

The Kremlin wants a negotiated settlement

– he declared

The former politician also refused to sever ties with his “friend Putin”. He also recalled that he had criticized the war on several occasions.

At the same time, he asked if it would really help anyone if he personally distanced himself from the Russian leader. He decided on their friendship a long time ago, and he stands by it – it will all work out one day, he said.

Why should I apologize?

– said the former president, referring to the criticism leveled at him because of his close relationship with Putin.

He called the existing problems “solvable”. According to him, it will not help if Ukraine tries to recover Crimea militarily – the witness of Stern’s interview wrote Infostart.

He also noted that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky himself had said about Kiev’s possible NATO membership that his country might consider armed neutrality on the Austrian model. This requires concessions on both sides, he stressed.

According to Schröder, Russia’s “containment fears” from the past are justified.

About the gas crisis announced that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline connecting Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea should be commissioned.

After his election defeat in 2005, Schröder went into business, accepting the position of chairman of the supervisory board of Nord Stream AG, the company formed to build the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline.

A few years ago, he was elected Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Rosneft Oil and Gas Industry Company.

He recently resigned from these positions.

In the past, he has received a lot of criticism for refusing to distance himself from the Russian head of state. The privileges he and his party enjoyed as a former president were revoked one after the other Initiated steps to remove it.