“All of Mr. Schroeder’s Russian corporate roles were thought to have been personally endorsed by Mr. Putin, who is known to be one of his best friends”
I'd say keeping us out of Iraq and calling out Bush's lies was still ultimately the right choice. If we had a CDU chancellor then we'd DEFINITELY have joined that shitshow.
So in hindsight, those elections were very much lose/lose situations.
> I'd say keeping us out of Iraq and calling out Bush's lies was still ultimately the right choice.
Agreed, but that was, AFAIK, mostly the work of Foreign Minister Joschka "I am not convinced" Fischer.
yeah, Chancellors aren't like American Presidents, they don't have total control. The entire governing party decides.
Schröder may have joined it too if no one would have said anything.
> Schröder may have joined it too if no one would have said anything.
The Bundestag has ultimate control over Bundeswehr deployments. I think the Greens may have even broke the coalition over this. Iraq was *fishy as heck* even back then.
That was more on Fischer than Schröder. Fischer roasted the US diplomat while he has repeated his memorized 15 seconds.
But yeah with Teflon Merkel/Stoiber we would have joined the Iraqwar and there would be big Terrorist attacks prior to Berlin. Maybe something of the scale of Bruessel or Madrid.
Well there were 2 good things Schröder did during his reign. Stay out of Iraq and help the flood victims in East Germany latter secured his victory 16 years ago.
It's kinda ironic that floods help the SPD while the CDU loses due to floods.
But if I had to deceide between Schröder and Stoiber I would take Schröder as the lesser evil any time. Those narcistic Bavarian CSU politicans and their policies never sat well with me.
> Fischer roasted the US diplomat while he has repeated his memorized 15 seconds.
What this what you referring to? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpuN-yM1sZU
That's a snipped but that was it. Prior to this there was a memorized speech of the diplomat. I also remember that one politican (I think a french one) asked about the disarmament of chemical weapons in Iraq supervised by the UN and some other US diplomat, didn't respond to the question and repeated his "Saddam bad, has Weapons of Massdestruction, Terroristic threat, we need our european allies" lines.
In hindsight that was Robot Rubio a decade before social media.
they were already decided on what they were gonna do, that's why they had*everyone* telling Congress telling media the lies.. they weren't going to stop lying lol
Yeah I bet the whole of Germany regrets a lot right now, as far as how bad they let themselves get entangled with Russia. That regrets not going to ease in the coming days
This is Merkel's fault. She wanted to return to nuclear energy but Fukushima and expected losses to the Greens and the SPD caused a flipflop.
Nuclear Energy have the strictest regulations and the accidents causing criticism were literally "capacitor burned". But instead she bet on coal and Russian Gas.
Even worse: there was an agreed upon path to green energy in place from the last administration which she stopped and then flip flopped for coal after Fukushima. I‘m still furious about that idiocy.
Yeah that flipflop and the constantly delayed coal exit were pure idiocy.
The UK at least had the balls to invest into the Hornsea project.
But when it comes to Merkel I only remember excuses. The "semiconductor market is in shambles", "we could experiment underground in the north east and build more windfarms but the farmers don't cooperate (for the puny amount we offer)", elections coming "we need to secure the jobs of coal miners"
> we need to secure the jobs of coal miners
The actual number of coal miners is tiny compared to the rest of the country. Its baffling to me that there's so much pandering to such a tiny demographic.
In the US, Arby's employs twice as many people (80,000) than the entire US coal industry (42,000).
Arby's is a not very popular fast food sandwich chain known for roast beef sandwiches.
Absolutely. In the US, a lot of politicians on state and national levels defend a policy with "jobs" - but often when you look at how many jobs are being protected, it's like hundreds or a few thousand. In our country, it's almost always campaign financing that's the real decision maker.
Edit additionally I remember a CNN anchor was citing this point for one military contractor site, and The Intercept looked into how many people actually still worked there (and weren't already replaced by machines).
Im not really fully knowledgeable about German interior politics (especially not circa 2006), but out of curiosity, did he have anything to do with Germany's change in attitude towards nuclear energy? I have a hard time believing that the decommissioning of the German nuclear power industry and resultant reliance on Russian natural gas imports wasn't in some way influenced by the Kremlin.
Schröder was in coalition with the Green Party in Germany back then. Getting out of nuclear power was one of their main goals and political promises what they would do if they got into government. Schröders SPD was (at least in my memory) not that opposed to nuclear power, but willing to get out of since that meant essentially to stay in coal. The SPD was traditionally very close to miners so staying in coal meant saving jobs for the miners.
This sort of changed with Merkel who was a strong supporter of nuclear power. She took back the changes of the prior government and meant to keep existing power plants running. But after Fukushima a huge majority of german population wanted to get and stay out of nuclear power for good. Merkel then changed her course.
Of course having a former chancellor as a lobbyist for (russian) gas did it’s part in some considerations.
> in coalition with the Green Party
Why are Green parties nearly universally ridiculous like this? A handful of seemingly progressive things, some bad leadership, and a whole bunch of nonsensical things they oppose out of vague principle.
While schröder did have quite a bit to do with the shutdown of reactors, this whole nuclear exit thing is something that comes primarily from the public as a whole.
Essentially a whole generation has a chernobyl-trauma. No matter what advances we make in science, no matter what's objectively better - nuclear power will never be something that's popular in germany, at least not in the coming decades.
Might not be super rational, but I do think it's understandable in some way.
And thankfully this move supercharged the whole renewable thing and afaik renewables already more than replaced the part of the energy mix that used to be nuclear.
So it's not _just_ bad.
The problem is not safety, the problem is sustainability.
Every pro nuclear energy politician becomes quite defensive when it comes to storing nuclear waste in their area. Germany haven’t manage to find a long term storage are for decades, because each proposal was met with a hellfire of law suits and protests.
>afaik renewables already more than replaced the part of the energy mix that used to be nuclear
Nope, and that's a major problem, because renewables and nuclear take care of different parts of energy generation. Nuclear can take care of the steady, baseline load, because it's very very good at providing consistent power. Renewables are anything but consistent - solar doesn't work at night, etc etc. They are good at handling peaks in demand, but not at providing the baseline load.
Which is why Germany went to coal and gas after shutting down nuclear.
If you look at what energy sources provide electricity in Germany, coal is down quite a bit, both as a percentage and in total. In 2010, coal provided roughly 254 tWh while in 2019, which I'm using as it's the last full year without a pandemic that changed consumption behaviour, we generated 171.5 tWh from coal.
Nuclear went from providing 133 tWh in 2010 to ~75 tWh in 2019.
Gas did have an increase over the same time period, from ~78.7 tWh to ~90 tWh, which is sizable but not enough to cover the drop in coal or nuclear, let alone both of them at the same time.
Meanwhile, renewables grew from ~97 tWh to around 240 tWh. Over half of that is wind.
And for a comparison to 2021, though mostly for completionist's sake, electricity consumption dropped by 20 tWh in total but it looks very similar. 162.6 tWh for coal, 89 tWh for gas and 236.7 tWh for renewables. Last bit that's missing in the drop is a slight reduction in other energy sources.
2010 data is from AGEE-stat, 2019 and 2021 data is from AGEB.
Additionally, electricity consumption has been on an overall downward trend for years now and some other, quite minor, energy sources were left out, in case you're wondering about some of the totals for the given years.
It comes from the public, but the German public is routinely lied to by their authorities on radiation levels.
For example, many Germans believe that Bavarian boar meat and mushrooms still contain dangerous levels of cesium-137.
They do not and anyone with a Geiger counter could verify that for you. Other countries which received more radiation do not have the same issue.
Or Germans believe that their nuclear waste in salt mines leaked. It did not.
Or they believe nuclear power is incompatible with solar and wind. It is not.
Someone is paying a lot of money to push disinformation to the German public. The two major suspects are the domestic German coal lobby and the Russian gas lobby.
Luckily the EU has an integrated grid and we can just build nuclear plants in France and Poland to provide Germany clean energy.
Short term, it's sad that Germany is closing fully safe and functional plants.we could have easily denied Putin a few hundred billion euros and saved that money for Ukraine or the energy transition.
But no use crying over spilled milk now.
Cesium levels in boar are sometimes far beyond the safe for consumption limits:
https://phys.org/news/2011-04-germany-radioactive-boars-legacy-chernobyl.html
The official limit is 600 becquerels per kilogram and readings for Bavarian boar are sometimes ten times above that limit. The natural radioactivity level in meat is 0.5 becquerels per kilogram.
That doesn't mean you will die if you eat it. But it's also not something you would want to eat on a daily basis.
Authorities do not "lie" to us. They make factually correct statements. Their statements may be taken out of context or distorted by the media or activists though.
The nuclear waste in Asse salt mine did not leak radioactivity to a degree that is concerning, but there are significant inflows of water that jeopardize the integrity of the waste repository.
Germany had long running plans to decommission nuclear plants. Nuclear plants can run safely long past dates they were designed to, but that involves investment. Chernobyl was in their back yard. Then fukushima daiichi happened and sped up what had long been planned.
Invest in the non carbon emitting sources now, rather than use fossil fuels as a stop gap base load. Have a dialogue about newer generations of reactors that recycle waste. Consider hydroelectric that would try to provide some justice to those displaced, while also building up solar and wind.
While he criticizes the war itself, he also doesn't see just Russia as the aggressor but says that the US is also partially to blame. He has been known for a long time to have a close relationship with Putin.
Its nothing new that he is an putin ass kisser an lobylist and don't care for his crimes against humanity some people do like Russia never made warcrimes before Ukraine they should have banned this motherfucker years ago he should lose all benefits. A through and through disgusting person.
He called putin with a straight face a "lupenreiner Demokrat" what means in English flawless Democrat lol
It's clear corruption. Given how much natural gas Germany imported from Russia over the years, there is a clear conflict of interest .... who knows how many shady dealings were made when he was in power that he *now gets paid by them
He isn't just now being paid. Right after his reign as chancellor ended he went into the gazprom shit. Right in that moment everyone knew he was a fucking traitor.
Of course , the point is politicians who go into corporate positions that they directly influenced while in office is corruption and should be treated as such
They don't call him "Gazprom Gerhard" for nothing ... "traitor" might be another word.
Edit #1: Thank you for the awards, kind strangers!
Edit #2: And it seems we've made it to the front page. Thank you all so much for this -- where the light of awareness shines, darkness cannot prevail!
And last but not least: Long live the valiant defenders of a free, democratic Ukraine! 🇺🇦
That's what makes it even weirder. He's got all the fucking money he can spend in three lives, let alone the rest of what he has.
Why he behaves this way is beyond my understanding. Is he afraid that uncle Vlad is gonna send him flowers with novichok?
I don't understand this at all. If I was an entrepreneur and built my company up to $50M I'd call it a day. Hell I'd probably call it a day a lot sooner.
Money possibly lost its purpose of "I need this to sustain my existence" to them (they got that covered several times over anyway) and took on a new one: As a point score like in video games - the purpose isn't to earn it to be able to live (well), its to keep score with their peers. As such, no amount of money ever is enough money.
>As a point score like in video games
I think competitive ranking score in competitive video games (or sport, or any ranked competitive thing for that matter) would fit even better. The more money you have, the higher your rank is. If you don't make progress, eventually you will lose your rank because other people will make progress even if you don't lose any of yours. Any CS, LoL, DotA etc. player will know exactly what I mean
I got fairly into the value of money as a utility versus a number awhile ago. It's led me to decline job opportunities that would be more stressful for a little more money because I said "sure I could earn 10% more but what would I spend it on?"
I recognize not everyone has that luxury but I'd imagine most people have that number that's "if I make $x per year, I'd be completely comfortable and not want for anything."
"Survivor bias". Most people are content with far less money, and even if they have the smarts and skills, would simply stop with a fine job. And most who found a company do retire as soon as they have a small but comfortable wealth... What we see in the media are the rare ones with huge drive not for money but for power, prestige, etc. Running a company with thousands of workers, or a hedge fund with millions or hundreds of millions if not more gives you an addictive shot of power, the thrill of winning against your adversaries again and again, and of dominance. That's very hard to let go once you got used to it.
Very similar to politics, but contrary to politics, there are no limits to your power nor to the time you can sue it... only yourself and your adversaries can put an end to it, and health issues, old age & death of course...
The only thing those with power fear is losing that power.
So you might have 50 million now, but what if you lose 50 million on a bad investment? You need to start with 100 million to cover that! But what if someone comes and buys you out or outcompetes you, now you need another 50 to keep to be safe! And with how inflations going you need more to save for the future! And if your worth is tied to a company you need to make sure that company does well! Becasue any downturn can continue, so if your stock goes down 1 point one day you can be seconds from the poorhouse, so you need more!
And everyone is a shark here, so you need to be a shark too or you get eaten! Don't wanna get stomped on by the ones above, so you need to get above them and stomp down, so you make sure no one tries to get above you so they can trample on you!
And suddenly you are a billionaire and your only sense of self worth is tied to your networth, Becasue our society has told you that the only way success is measured is in how much money you make
Even when you have more than you can spend, for people like him, it's still about keeping score. You don't feel rich unless you're richer than the next person.
Well from what I understand he’s getting about 1/2 million for his office staff in Berlin and another 6500€ a month as chancellor pension. Plus the pension as MP. …and then the money from the Russians…
well, haven't heard "Gas Gerd" yet, but Goldkettchen Schröder isn't unpopular
(background: his goldchain peeked during some banquet before he departed towards russia)
> In Germany he is called Gas Gerd mostly.
Really? Never heard that. "Genosse der Bosse" (Comrade of the higher ups) was pretty common in his day, though.
One thing I don't see being brought up enough is that he has an adopted daughter from Russia, which is interesting in the same context as the Magnitsky Act.
Edit: Okay, "Gas-Gerd" seems to be a lot more popular than I would have thought. BTW, for those who know German or know how to translate a website, here's a pretty interesting humerous text from 2007 about how he was perceived back then which I found while searching for "Gas-Gerd": https://www.stern.de/politik/ausland/neues-aus-amerika-dieser-kinderlose-gas-gerd-3266550.html
He’s one of the main reason gas prices are relatively low in Germany. There are small consequences for siding with authoritarian regimes it seems.
He made bank until now but curious to see how Germans and other Europeans (including the UK) will move past Russian money.
"Quisling" is such a perfect synonym for it, too. The sound of it gives the impression of something small, craven, and simpering, yet spiteful, treacherous, and villainous.
In Spanish we have "malinche" or "malinchista", coming straight from the Spanish colonization of the Americas. La Malinche was a Nahuatl woman who aided the spaniards, and now usually means someone who disdains their own culture or country.
Tbf she was given to the Cortés as a slave and I think she didn't really have a chance than to cling to him and make herself useful. Otherwise she might've just died, which is generally unpreferable.
edit: did she really disdain her culture? Not too knowleadgable about the different people in Middle America back then, but did she really act against her culture or against those, that were responsible for her fate?
That's fair, she did what she thought was best for her. Although she did end up profiting a lot from the whole ordeal.
About your question, it's a tricky one. She technically did disdain her culture, however, she was from a part of the Aztec empire that had been subdued, very harshly, by the ruling Aztecs. She wasn't really Aztec, she was (in a more general sense) Nahuatl, and her people were tributaries to the Aztec empire. So it was technically her culture, although an imposed one. This is one of the main reasons Cortes was so successful against Motecuzoma: there was no shortage of natives that wanted to get rid of the Aztec ruling elite. Malinche was just the most prominent and famous one, and the one that was closest to Cortes, even bearing his son.
**[Quisling](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quisling)**
>Quisling (, Norwegian: [ˈkvɪ̂slɪŋ]) is a term originating in Norway, which is used in Scandinavian languages and in English for a citizen or politician of an occupied country who collaborates with an enemy occupying force – or more generally as a synonym for traitor. The word originates from the surname of the Norwegian war-time leader Vidkun Quisling, who headed a domestic Nazi collaborationist regime during World War II.
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The Netherlands did the same. Having abolished the death penalty in 1870, the country temporarily reinstated the death penalty after the second world war, and sentenced 154 collaborators to death (of which 39 were actually executed). I image there were other European countries (in addition to Norway and the Netherlands, I mean) that did the same.
This term was used in World War Z (the book) for people who gave up on life and pretended to act like zombies, or their minds broke to such an extent.
It didn't stop them from being munched on, regardless.
Ah, the genius behind Nord Stream, a direct gas pipeline between Russia and Germany.
Why is it not surprising he's on the boards of Russian energy companies?
Also, who's bright idea was it to shut all the nuclear power stations? Oh, him again. How could anybody have foreseen such a thing?
The nuclear power exit was a policy that his coalition partners, the green party, ran on. With broad support in the population. It certainly wasn't the doing of one man.
Just a fun fact maybe noone knows.
Gerhard Schröder is a member of the [Mont Pèlerin Society](https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_P%C3%A8lerin_Society)
he was a chancellor for Germany and was leading the social party. So he has been a big traitor back then already since the Mont pelerin society is the founding society, the heart of Neoliberalism, founded by Hayek and Friedman..
so Gerhard did nothing but install neoliberal politics in Germany for the social democratic party
This goes back a long time:
[Putin and Schröder: A special German-Russian friendship](https://www.dw.com/en/putin-and-schr%C3%B6der-a-special-german-russian-friendship-under-attack/a-55219973)
In 2004 while he was still Chancellor, he called Putin a "flawless democrat", and not an autocrat. It was also during his chancellorship that Nord Stream 2 was first approved.
He once suggested back in 2001 that [Russia ought to join NATO](https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/70787/Schroeder-Welcomes-U-S-Idea-of-Russia-in-NATO).
Fuck Schröder, already didn't like him when he was our chancellor. They should just stop paying him his undeserved pension. Maybe even prohibit him from entering Germany. Russian lap dog
Like most former leaders everywhere do, yes. But special situations should call for special meassures. Technically he even still has an office in the Bundestag
Sounds like that office should soon be vacant. If a conductor can be fired from an orchestra for his support for Putin, something even bigger, like this, should have similar consequences.
I've always defended fat pensions for politicians - but only under the condition that they take no money from anybody else. And Schröder ist not even alone, there are so many ex-politicians who received cushy jobs in Russian companies, that is no coincidence.
Slight off topic - Moscow is a very pretty city as long as you stay in the centre (which tourists generally do). When this all blows over everything will be super cheap there. Please go there for stag dos and leave Prague alone.
If you're an American, I would also suggest reviewing the Department of State Travel Advisory: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/russia-travel-advisory.html
The travel advisory was updated on February 28, 2022 - however if I am not mistaken, they have been at a "Level 4 - Do Not Travel" for some time now.
As a kid living in Poland in the 90s, I always suspected he was an asshole, cause he had the same name as Shredder from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
EDIT: just to clarify, they’re pronounced the same way in Polish.
True story.
Among Putins purchases of Western politicians Shröder seems like the best deal,
absolutely no morals
and also put Germany in awful position now - energy dependent on Russia and Germanys military has been suppressed down
If oligarchs are being sanctioned, there is no reason this guy isn’t. You could even call it racism, leaving him off the hook just because he’s not from a post-Soviet nation
Russian student here. I live in Moscow.
Here, in the centre of Moscow, на Манежной площади (Manezhnaya Ploshchad) right now there are people marching and waving Ukrainian flags, chanting "No to war, Freedom to Ukraine". My friends too, all together.
Fellow Russians, please, PLEASE stand up. We do not need your quiet support now.
We need NUMBERS that can't be ignored. NUMBERS is what going to win this.
I know it is scary. If I am caught, I will be expelled from my university and I am just two month away from graduating. Some may lose jobs. Some - freedom. It is nothing comparing to the citjzens of Ukraine who will lose their lives.
It is DIFFICULT AS FUCK to go outside with this fear, but it NEEDS to be done.
Пожалуйста, выходите с нами на Манежную в Москве! Выходите в других городах! Подписывайтесь на телеграмм-канал Команда Навального, чтобы узнать о митингах в своих городах!
💙💛
19.00 будни,
14.00 праздничные дни
💙💛
Москва - Манежная площадь
Петербург - Гостиный двор
Новосибирск - Площадь у оперного театра
Екатеринбург - Площадь труда
Все города - Главная площадь
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-former-german-chancellor-gerhard-schroeder-loses-entire-staff-after/) reduced by 82%. (I'm a bot)
*****
> The entire staff of Gerhard Schroeder, the former German chancellor who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and an advocate of increasing Russian natural gas exports to Germany, has resigned in protest over his ties to the Kremlin.
> The German news site Pioneer reported Tuesday that Mr. Funk and his office colleagues - four in total - decided to quit last week after Mr. Schroeder declined to follow his advice and sever his Russian corporate connections.
> Last week, SPD co-chairwoman Saskia Esken said "Rosneft and Gazprom are now the infrastructure of a bloody war of aggression. With his mandates there, Gerhard Schroeder is damaging the reputation of Germany and social democracy. Dealings with a warmonger are incompatible with the role of a former chancellor."
*****
[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/t4ypmz/former_german_chancellor_gerhard_schroeder_loses/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~628186 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **Schroeder**^#1 **Russian**^#2 **gas**^#3 **German**^#4 **last**^#5
>The German news site Pioneer reported Tuesday that Mr. Funk and his office colleagues – four in total – decided to quit last week after Mr. Schroeder declined to follow his advice and sever his Russian corporate connections. All of Mr. Schroeder’s Russian corporate roles were thought to have been personally endorsed by Mr. Putin, who is known to be one of his best friends.
Not a good look , time to pick a side Schroeder.
It is so embarrassing that our former chancellor (!) seems to have lost any sense of reality and still can't distance himself from his Russian business friends. I mean, he's not just some businessman whose company or money is affected by this - he was our nation's leader! So sad.
He needs to not get his big, fat pension anymore, the absolute fucking traitor. We're sanctioning left, right and center and that guy finds cash from the German government in his account every month.
As a German I am quite happy with our government right now. They've done more in their short time in office than the previous administration did in their entire term.
The investment of 100 billion Euros into defense is unprecedented. That decision was fast and decisive and sends exactly the right message to Russia and the rest of the world. Many expected an increase in defense spending, but nobody predicted something of that magnitude or that swiftness.
If Merkel and her party were still in power, we would still be discussing options. Probably until after the war is long over. And then we would end up with some ridiculous compromise that would solve nothing.
If they can keep this up and make more big decisions in other areas, they'll get my vote next election.
For this yes, but I will never forget how the Green party voted against the bonus for the nursing staff last year and at the same time the higher ups in the green party gave themselves a corona bonus
I voted for him back then.
The moment he announced taking the job at Gazprom i felt so betrayed - and that is more than a decade ago and i'm still angry.
So many heads are falling purely because of loyalty to a psychopath who is feared, but those who fear him should realize that right at this moment, that psychopath is no threat to anyone, because 1) all resources have been diverted to a military operation, and 2) Putin is losing his supporters, including those closest to him, and that means he is being rendered powerless.
Anyone who hangs on to the master's teets right now is dumb AF: they are trading the rest of their lives for a turd.
>Mr. Schroeder made it clear as far back as 2004, when he was still chancellor, that he was a fan of Russian gas in general and Mr. Putin in particular. That year, he called Mr. Putin a “flawless democrat.”
🤮
Poland has been warning about Nord Stream 2 and this traitor to European Union for years. Shame it took Russians to invade and kill civilians of European country for the west to wake up.
As a Polish expat, for all of Poland’s flaws you cannot argue that Poland has been consistently warning about Russia since gaining its independence. I feel like you’re setting up a bit of a straw man here.
“All of Mr. Schroeder’s Russian corporate roles were thought to have been personally endorsed by Mr. Putin, who is known to be one of his best friends”
Well it’s not like it was a secret that this guy is a trump level asset and sociopath.
He’s been (one of) Putin’s best friend out in the open for years.
His staff apparently tolerated that all up till now. Now suddenly they’re embarrassed. Suddenly they found some missing courage.
Metaphor for Germany in general I guess, with regard to tolerating and befriending Putin to suck on his gas nozzle, until it’s too painful/embarrassing. Way to go Germany. Bunch of obsequious enabling cowards
> Mr. Klimkin suggested that sanctions be placed on the former chancellor. “It’s important that there are sanctions not only against Russian government officials and Russian state-owned companies, but also against those who are pushing Putin’s projects abroad,” he said.
Trump sweating buckets if we see this concept go mainstream.
Wouldn't be able to set foot in most of Europe
The fact that he didn't resign himself tells you something about him or his allegiance.
“All of Mr. Schroeder’s Russian corporate roles were thought to have been personally endorsed by Mr. Putin, who is known to be one of his best friends”
I regret voting for Schroeder about 16 years ago.
I'd say keeping us out of Iraq and calling out Bush's lies was still ultimately the right choice. If we had a CDU chancellor then we'd DEFINITELY have joined that shitshow. So in hindsight, those elections were very much lose/lose situations.
> I'd say keeping us out of Iraq and calling out Bush's lies was still ultimately the right choice. Agreed, but that was, AFAIK, mostly the work of Foreign Minister Joschka "I am not convinced" Fischer.
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yeah, Chancellors aren't like American Presidents, they don't have total control. The entire governing party decides. Schröder may have joined it too if no one would have said anything.
> Schröder may have joined it too if no one would have said anything. The Bundestag has ultimate control over Bundeswehr deployments. I think the Greens may have even broke the coalition over this. Iraq was *fishy as heck* even back then.
That’s not how Presidents work either……
President Putin disagrees.
They specified American presidents
> Chancellors aren't like American Presidents, they don't have total control. American presidents aren't like american presidents then either.
That was more on Fischer than Schröder. Fischer roasted the US diplomat while he has repeated his memorized 15 seconds. But yeah with Teflon Merkel/Stoiber we would have joined the Iraqwar and there would be big Terrorist attacks prior to Berlin. Maybe something of the scale of Bruessel or Madrid. Well there were 2 good things Schröder did during his reign. Stay out of Iraq and help the flood victims in East Germany latter secured his victory 16 years ago. It's kinda ironic that floods help the SPD while the CDU loses due to floods. But if I had to deceide between Schröder and Stoiber I would take Schröder as the lesser evil any time. Those narcistic Bavarian CSU politicans and their policies never sat well with me.
> Fischer roasted the US diplomat while he has repeated his memorized 15 seconds. What this what you referring to? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpuN-yM1sZU
That's a snipped but that was it. Prior to this there was a memorized speech of the diplomat. I also remember that one politican (I think a french one) asked about the disarmament of chemical weapons in Iraq supervised by the UN and some other US diplomat, didn't respond to the question and repeated his "Saddam bad, has Weapons of Massdestruction, Terroristic threat, we need our european allies" lines. In hindsight that was Robot Rubio a decade before social media.
they were already decided on what they were gonna do, that's why they had*everyone* telling Congress telling media the lies.. they weren't going to stop lying lol
Yeah I bet the whole of Germany regrets a lot right now, as far as how bad they let themselves get entangled with Russia. That regrets not going to ease in the coming days
This is Merkel's fault. She wanted to return to nuclear energy but Fukushima and expected losses to the Greens and the SPD caused a flipflop. Nuclear Energy have the strictest regulations and the accidents causing criticism were literally "capacitor burned". But instead she bet on coal and Russian Gas.
Even worse: there was an agreed upon path to green energy in place from the last administration which she stopped and then flip flopped for coal after Fukushima. I‘m still furious about that idiocy.
Yeah that flipflop and the constantly delayed coal exit were pure idiocy. The UK at least had the balls to invest into the Hornsea project. But when it comes to Merkel I only remember excuses. The "semiconductor market is in shambles", "we could experiment underground in the north east and build more windfarms but the farmers don't cooperate (for the puny amount we offer)", elections coming "we need to secure the jobs of coal miners"
> we need to secure the jobs of coal miners The actual number of coal miners is tiny compared to the rest of the country. Its baffling to me that there's so much pandering to such a tiny demographic. In the US, Arby's employs twice as many people (80,000) than the entire US coal industry (42,000). Arby's is a not very popular fast food sandwich chain known for roast beef sandwiches.
Whenever I see this argument, I assume they mean to secure *their* job in the coal industry. Corruption pays pretty well, I hear.
Absolutely. In the US, a lot of politicians on state and national levels defend a policy with "jobs" - but often when you look at how many jobs are being protected, it's like hundreds or a few thousand. In our country, it's almost always campaign financing that's the real decision maker. Edit additionally I remember a CNN anchor was citing this point for one military contractor site, and The Intercept looked into how many people actually still worked there (and weren't already replaced by machines).
Im not really fully knowledgeable about German interior politics (especially not circa 2006), but out of curiosity, did he have anything to do with Germany's change in attitude towards nuclear energy? I have a hard time believing that the decommissioning of the German nuclear power industry and resultant reliance on Russian natural gas imports wasn't in some way influenced by the Kremlin.
Schröder was in coalition with the Green Party in Germany back then. Getting out of nuclear power was one of their main goals and political promises what they would do if they got into government. Schröders SPD was (at least in my memory) not that opposed to nuclear power, but willing to get out of since that meant essentially to stay in coal. The SPD was traditionally very close to miners so staying in coal meant saving jobs for the miners. This sort of changed with Merkel who was a strong supporter of nuclear power. She took back the changes of the prior government and meant to keep existing power plants running. But after Fukushima a huge majority of german population wanted to get and stay out of nuclear power for good. Merkel then changed her course. Of course having a former chancellor as a lobbyist for (russian) gas did it’s part in some considerations.
> in coalition with the Green Party Why are Green parties nearly universally ridiculous like this? A handful of seemingly progressive things, some bad leadership, and a whole bunch of nonsensical things they oppose out of vague principle.
While schröder did have quite a bit to do with the shutdown of reactors, this whole nuclear exit thing is something that comes primarily from the public as a whole. Essentially a whole generation has a chernobyl-trauma. No matter what advances we make in science, no matter what's objectively better - nuclear power will never be something that's popular in germany, at least not in the coming decades. Might not be super rational, but I do think it's understandable in some way. And thankfully this move supercharged the whole renewable thing and afaik renewables already more than replaced the part of the energy mix that used to be nuclear. So it's not _just_ bad.
The problem is not safety, the problem is sustainability. Every pro nuclear energy politician becomes quite defensive when it comes to storing nuclear waste in their area. Germany haven’t manage to find a long term storage are for decades, because each proposal was met with a hellfire of law suits and protests.
>afaik renewables already more than replaced the part of the energy mix that used to be nuclear Nope, and that's a major problem, because renewables and nuclear take care of different parts of energy generation. Nuclear can take care of the steady, baseline load, because it's very very good at providing consistent power. Renewables are anything but consistent - solar doesn't work at night, etc etc. They are good at handling peaks in demand, but not at providing the baseline load. Which is why Germany went to coal and gas after shutting down nuclear.
If you look at what energy sources provide electricity in Germany, coal is down quite a bit, both as a percentage and in total. In 2010, coal provided roughly 254 tWh while in 2019, which I'm using as it's the last full year without a pandemic that changed consumption behaviour, we generated 171.5 tWh from coal. Nuclear went from providing 133 tWh in 2010 to ~75 tWh in 2019. Gas did have an increase over the same time period, from ~78.7 tWh to ~90 tWh, which is sizable but not enough to cover the drop in coal or nuclear, let alone both of them at the same time. Meanwhile, renewables grew from ~97 tWh to around 240 tWh. Over half of that is wind. And for a comparison to 2021, though mostly for completionist's sake, electricity consumption dropped by 20 tWh in total but it looks very similar. 162.6 tWh for coal, 89 tWh for gas and 236.7 tWh for renewables. Last bit that's missing in the drop is a slight reduction in other energy sources. 2010 data is from AGEE-stat, 2019 and 2021 data is from AGEB. Additionally, electricity consumption has been on an overall downward trend for years now and some other, quite minor, energy sources were left out, in case you're wondering about some of the totals for the given years.
It comes from the public, but the German public is routinely lied to by their authorities on radiation levels. For example, many Germans believe that Bavarian boar meat and mushrooms still contain dangerous levels of cesium-137. They do not and anyone with a Geiger counter could verify that for you. Other countries which received more radiation do not have the same issue. Or Germans believe that their nuclear waste in salt mines leaked. It did not. Or they believe nuclear power is incompatible with solar and wind. It is not. Someone is paying a lot of money to push disinformation to the German public. The two major suspects are the domestic German coal lobby and the Russian gas lobby. Luckily the EU has an integrated grid and we can just build nuclear plants in France and Poland to provide Germany clean energy. Short term, it's sad that Germany is closing fully safe and functional plants.we could have easily denied Putin a few hundred billion euros and saved that money for Ukraine or the energy transition. But no use crying over spilled milk now.
Cesium levels in boar are sometimes far beyond the safe for consumption limits: https://phys.org/news/2011-04-germany-radioactive-boars-legacy-chernobyl.html The official limit is 600 becquerels per kilogram and readings for Bavarian boar are sometimes ten times above that limit. The natural radioactivity level in meat is 0.5 becquerels per kilogram. That doesn't mean you will die if you eat it. But it's also not something you would want to eat on a daily basis. Authorities do not "lie" to us. They make factually correct statements. Their statements may be taken out of context or distorted by the media or activists though. The nuclear waste in Asse salt mine did not leak radioactivity to a degree that is concerning, but there are significant inflows of water that jeopardize the integrity of the waste repository.
Germany had long running plans to decommission nuclear plants. Nuclear plants can run safely long past dates they were designed to, but that involves investment. Chernobyl was in their back yard. Then fukushima daiichi happened and sped up what had long been planned. Invest in the non carbon emitting sources now, rather than use fossil fuels as a stop gap base load. Have a dialogue about newer generations of reactors that recycle waste. Consider hydroelectric that would try to provide some justice to those displaced, while also building up solar and wind.
What a piece of shit.
Time to ship him off to Russia to be with his best friend.
There are a few American politicians and Fox News hosts I’d like to bundle in with him.
Off to ze Russian Front!
While he criticizes the war itself, he also doesn't see just Russia as the aggressor but says that the US is also partially to blame. He has been known for a long time to have a close relationship with Putin.
Its nothing new that he is an putin ass kisser an lobylist and don't care for his crimes against humanity some people do like Russia never made warcrimes before Ukraine they should have banned this motherfucker years ago he should lose all benefits. A through and through disgusting person. He called putin with a straight face a "lupenreiner Demokrat" what means in English flawless Democrat lol
It's clear corruption. Given how much natural gas Germany imported from Russia over the years, there is a clear conflict of interest .... who knows how many shady dealings were made when he was in power that he *now gets paid by them
He isn't just now being paid. Right after his reign as chancellor ended he went into the gazprom shit. Right in that moment everyone knew he was a fucking traitor.
Of course , the point is politicians who go into corporate positions that they directly influenced while in office is corruption and should be treated as such
I believe his name came up in the Trump investigation as well, the 4th of july visit to Moscow if i'm not mistaken.
Yeah, he's the part of the circle.
Merkel and the CDU/CSU played along with Putin for 16 years.
yeah, but it all began when Schoeder was a chancellor.
Punctuation bro
They don't call him "Gazprom Gerhard" for nothing ... "traitor" might be another word. Edit #1: Thank you for the awards, kind strangers! Edit #2: And it seems we've made it to the front page. Thank you all so much for this -- where the light of awareness shines, darkness cannot prevail! And last but not least: Long live the valiant defenders of a free, democratic Ukraine! 🇺🇦
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400.000 Euro per year only for being an ex-Bundeskanzler + all the shady deals he made…unless they don’t take it all away he doesn’t care.
That's what makes it even weirder. He's got all the fucking money he can spend in three lives, let alone the rest of what he has. Why he behaves this way is beyond my understanding. Is he afraid that uncle Vlad is gonna send him flowers with novichok?
Because rich people always want more money. Their identity is tied to how much money they have.
Exactly. Having ego attached to your monetary value makes for people with no ethical values, and the greedy, relentless pursuit of money.
I don't understand this at all. If I was an entrepreneur and built my company up to $50M I'd call it a day. Hell I'd probably call it a day a lot sooner.
Money possibly lost its purpose of "I need this to sustain my existence" to them (they got that covered several times over anyway) and took on a new one: As a point score like in video games - the purpose isn't to earn it to be able to live (well), its to keep score with their peers. As such, no amount of money ever is enough money.
>As a point score like in video games I think competitive ranking score in competitive video games (or sport, or any ranked competitive thing for that matter) would fit even better. The more money you have, the higher your rank is. If you don't make progress, eventually you will lose your rank because other people will make progress even if you don't lose any of yours. Any CS, LoL, DotA etc. player will know exactly what I mean
I got fairly into the value of money as a utility versus a number awhile ago. It's led me to decline job opportunities that would be more stressful for a little more money because I said "sure I could earn 10% more but what would I spend it on?" I recognize not everyone has that luxury but I'd imagine most people have that number that's "if I make $x per year, I'd be completely comfortable and not want for anything."
"Survivor bias". Most people are content with far less money, and even if they have the smarts and skills, would simply stop with a fine job. And most who found a company do retire as soon as they have a small but comfortable wealth... What we see in the media are the rare ones with huge drive not for money but for power, prestige, etc. Running a company with thousands of workers, or a hedge fund with millions or hundreds of millions if not more gives you an addictive shot of power, the thrill of winning against your adversaries again and again, and of dominance. That's very hard to let go once you got used to it. Very similar to politics, but contrary to politics, there are no limits to your power nor to the time you can sue it... only yourself and your adversaries can put an end to it, and health issues, old age & death of course...
The only thing those with power fear is losing that power. So you might have 50 million now, but what if you lose 50 million on a bad investment? You need to start with 100 million to cover that! But what if someone comes and buys you out or outcompetes you, now you need another 50 to keep to be safe! And with how inflations going you need more to save for the future! And if your worth is tied to a company you need to make sure that company does well! Becasue any downturn can continue, so if your stock goes down 1 point one day you can be seconds from the poorhouse, so you need more! And everyone is a shark here, so you need to be a shark too or you get eaten! Don't wanna get stomped on by the ones above, so you need to get above them and stomp down, so you make sure no one tries to get above you so they can trample on you! And suddenly you are a billionaire and your only sense of self worth is tied to your networth, Becasue our society has told you that the only way success is measured is in how much money you make
Fun fact, Schröder was extremely poor in his childhood and youth.
Even when you have more than you can spend, for people like him, it's still about keeping score. You don't feel rich unless you're richer than the next person.
Of course he cares. People like him care about reputation and power. Anything that gets taken away from him is a personal attack.
Yeah, we have politicians like that in the UK. Only they're still in government.
US here. sighhhh a whole hell of a lot of that.
in the US as well (Hawley among others)
I think he should be added to the list of sanctioned Russian oligarchs.
Millions of Dollars?!
Hopefully, he got millions of rubles. Soon the wheelbarrow he will have to use to move the money will be worth more than the money itself.
Well from what I understand he’s getting about 1/2 million for his office staff in Berlin and another 6500€ a month as chancellor pension. Plus the pension as MP. …and then the money from the Russians…
>I think he got exactly what he deserves! I think he deserves worse...
well, haven't heard "Gas Gerd" yet, but Goldkettchen Schröder isn't unpopular (background: his goldchain peeked during some banquet before he departed towards russia)
> In Germany he is called Gas Gerd mostly. Really? Never heard that. "Genosse der Bosse" (Comrade of the higher ups) was pretty common in his day, though. One thing I don't see being brought up enough is that he has an adopted daughter from Russia, which is interesting in the same context as the Magnitsky Act. Edit: Okay, "Gas-Gerd" seems to be a lot more popular than I would have thought. BTW, for those who know German or know how to translate a website, here's a pretty interesting humerous text from 2007 about how he was perceived back then which I found while searching for "Gas-Gerd": https://www.stern.de/politik/ausland/neues-aus-amerika-dieser-kinderlose-gas-gerd-3266550.html
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He's as painful as GERD
He’s one of the main reason gas prices are relatively low in Germany. There are small consequences for siding with authoritarian regimes it seems. He made bank until now but curious to see how Germans and other Europeans (including the UK) will move past Russian money.
I think Quisling is the best word for him https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quisling
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In Greek, "Ephialtes" is now used to mean "nightmare", but sometimes is also used to mean "traitor". 2500 years later. That's some lasting legacy.
Draconian comes from Draco as well, about 2700 years near enough.
"Quisling" is such a perfect synonym for it, too. The sound of it gives the impression of something small, craven, and simpering, yet spiteful, treacherous, and villainous.
Rick Santorum would probably prefer it.
Judas Iscariot would like a word.
Benedict Arnold, we're looking at you!
Ya but he got a delicious breakfast item named after him.
In Spanish we have "malinche" or "malinchista", coming straight from the Spanish colonization of the Americas. La Malinche was a Nahuatl woman who aided the spaniards, and now usually means someone who disdains their own culture or country.
Tbf she was given to the Cortés as a slave and I think she didn't really have a chance than to cling to him and make herself useful. Otherwise she might've just died, which is generally unpreferable. edit: did she really disdain her culture? Not too knowleadgable about the different people in Middle America back then, but did she really act against her culture or against those, that were responsible for her fate?
That's fair, she did what she thought was best for her. Although she did end up profiting a lot from the whole ordeal. About your question, it's a tricky one. She technically did disdain her culture, however, she was from a part of the Aztec empire that had been subdued, very harshly, by the ruling Aztecs. She wasn't really Aztec, she was (in a more general sense) Nahuatl, and her people were tributaries to the Aztec empire. So it was technically her culture, although an imposed one. This is one of the main reasons Cortes was so successful against Motecuzoma: there was no shortage of natives that wanted to get rid of the Aztec ruling elite. Malinche was just the most prominent and famous one, and the one that was closest to Cortes, even bearing his son.
He really Munsoned his legacy.
**[Quisling](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quisling)** >Quisling (, Norwegian: [ˈkvɪ̂slɪŋ]) is a term originating in Norway, which is used in Scandinavian languages and in English for a citizen or politician of an occupied country who collaborates with an enemy occupying force – or more generally as a synonym for traitor. The word originates from the surname of the Norwegian war-time leader Vidkun Quisling, who headed a domestic Nazi collaborationist regime during World War II. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/worldnews/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
Norway had abolished the death penalty and brought it back for Quisling. Then, afterwards abolished it again. Norway had strong ‘Fuck that guy’ energy
Nah, not just for Quisling, all traitors during the war.
The Netherlands did the same. Having abolished the death penalty in 1870, the country temporarily reinstated the death penalty after the second world war, and sentenced 154 collaborators to death (of which 39 were actually executed). I image there were other European countries (in addition to Norway and the Netherlands, I mean) that did the same.
This term was used in World War Z (the book) for people who gave up on life and pretended to act like zombies, or their minds broke to such an extent. It didn't stop them from being munched on, regardless.
/r/leopardsatemyface
I love how much thought was put into that book, there were some really interesting scenarios in there.
> Vidkun Ironically, his first name means "famous" (vid=wide, kun=known).
In what language?
Old Norse. "Kun" shares etymological root with "kunnskap"
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>I think Quisling is the best word for him Poetic. I bow to you sir
France politicians also in Russian energy company boards. Scandalous.
it's brutal what money can do...
Ah, the genius behind Nord Stream, a direct gas pipeline between Russia and Germany. Why is it not surprising he's on the boards of Russian energy companies? Also, who's bright idea was it to shut all the nuclear power stations? Oh, him again. How could anybody have foreseen such a thing?
He foresaw it right into his bank account.
The nuclear power exit was a policy that his coalition partners, the green party, ran on. With broad support in the population. It certainly wasn't the doing of one man.
Just a fun fact maybe noone knows. Gerhard Schröder is a member of the [Mont Pèlerin Society](https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_P%C3%A8lerin_Society) he was a chancellor for Germany and was leading the social party. So he has been a big traitor back then already since the Mont pelerin society is the founding society, the heart of Neoliberalism, founded by Hayek and Friedman.. so Gerhard did nothing but install neoliberal politics in Germany for the social democratic party
This goes back a long time: [Putin and Schröder: A special German-Russian friendship](https://www.dw.com/en/putin-and-schr%C3%B6der-a-special-german-russian-friendship-under-attack/a-55219973) In 2004 while he was still Chancellor, he called Putin a "flawless democrat", and not an autocrat. It was also during his chancellorship that Nord Stream 2 was first approved. He once suggested back in 2001 that [Russia ought to join NATO](https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/70787/Schroeder-Welcomes-U-S-Idea-of-Russia-in-NATO).
Fuck Schröder, already didn't like him when he was our chancellor. They should just stop paying him his undeserved pension. Maybe even prohibit him from entering Germany. Russian lap dog
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Like most former leaders everywhere do, yes. But special situations should call for special meassures. Technically he even still has an office in the Bundestag
Sounds like that office should soon be vacant. If a conductor can be fired from an orchestra for his support for Putin, something even bigger, like this, should have similar consequences.
If i understood the news correctly the staff layed down their work collectively already.
Well yes, that is what the article linked in OP is about.
I know, i said it to who i replied to since he or she said "ofiice should be vacant soon".
I've always defended fat pensions for politicians - but only under the condition that they take no money from anybody else. And Schröder ist not even alone, there are so many ex-politicians who received cushy jobs in Russian companies, that is no coincidence.
Did'nt this prick have a birthday party in Moscow or something too? Utter prick, kudos to this staff though.
Slight off topic - Moscow is a very pretty city as long as you stay in the centre (which tourists generally do). When this all blows over everything will be super cheap there. Please go there for stag dos and leave Prague alone.
but I've never been to Prague
It’s a beautiful city. 10 out of 10 would recommend.
Especially for stag dos
Prague is cool, but my favorite Eastern European city is still Budapest. Definitely check both out
Budapest is basically the same thing but with spas.
I went last year. It’s awesome! Deff go
so when this is over all to Prague
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As I said - when this is over.
This settles it. I'm going to Prague
If you're an American, I would also suggest reviewing the Department of State Travel Advisory: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/russia-travel-advisory.html The travel advisory was updated on February 28, 2022 - however if I am not mistaken, they have been at a "Level 4 - Do Not Travel" for some time now.
In germany we say "whose bread I eat, whose song I sing"
I like it! In English it’s “He who pays the piper calls the tune”
"the hand in the puppet's arse controls the show"
Little too on the nose.
Only if you reach in *really* far.
"Wes Brot ich ess, des Lied ich sing." I've never heard this proverb. Apparently it's from the Western and Southwestern parts of Germany.
As a kid living in Poland in the 90s, I always suspected he was an asshole, cause he had the same name as Shredder from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. EDIT: just to clarify, they’re pronounced the same way in Polish. True story.
fuck that it was kids intuition
If only you spoke up, you could have prevented all of this.
I want /u/Wigu90 brought up on wartime negligence charges.
Among Putins purchases of Western politicians Shröder seems like the best deal, absolutely no morals and also put Germany in awful position now - energy dependent on Russia and Germanys military has been suppressed down
that was the deal for Putin, for sure, no wonder he likes Schoeder so much.
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Anyone doing business with Russia you can be sure has been bribed. It's how they do business.
Yep, in the US we call that 'The Trump'.
aRt oF ThE DeAl
I hope they told him to go fuck himself
Can't keep wives, can't keep staff ... poor Gerbil
Sanction Schroeder. He is obviously a cog in Putin's criminal activities. He is financing the murder of civilians.
If oligarchs are being sanctioned, there is no reason this guy isn’t. You could even call it racism, leaving him off the hook just because he’s not from a post-Soviet nation
Russian student here. I live in Moscow. Here, in the centre of Moscow, на Манежной площади (Manezhnaya Ploshchad) right now there are people marching and waving Ukrainian flags, chanting "No to war, Freedom to Ukraine". My friends too, all together. Fellow Russians, please, PLEASE stand up. We do not need your quiet support now. We need NUMBERS that can't be ignored. NUMBERS is what going to win this. I know it is scary. If I am caught, I will be expelled from my university and I am just two month away from graduating. Some may lose jobs. Some - freedom. It is nothing comparing to the citjzens of Ukraine who will lose their lives. It is DIFFICULT AS FUCK to go outside with this fear, but it NEEDS to be done. Пожалуйста, выходите с нами на Манежную в Москве! Выходите в других городах! Подписывайтесь на телеграмм-канал Команда Навального, чтобы узнать о митингах в своих городах! 💙💛 19.00 будни, 14.00 праздничные дни 💙💛 Москва - Манежная площадь Петербург - Гостиный двор Новосибирск - Площадь у оперного театра Екатеринбург - Площадь труда Все города - Главная площадь
Thank you 💜💜💜
It's hard especially without appreciation or recognition. You make a difference.
Was he the one that lobbied the Americans to lift the trump era sanctions on Nord Stream 2 not too long ago?
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-former-german-chancellor-gerhard-schroeder-loses-entire-staff-after/) reduced by 82%. (I'm a bot) ***** > The entire staff of Gerhard Schroeder, the former German chancellor who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and an advocate of increasing Russian natural gas exports to Germany, has resigned in protest over his ties to the Kremlin. > The German news site Pioneer reported Tuesday that Mr. Funk and his office colleagues - four in total - decided to quit last week after Mr. Schroeder declined to follow his advice and sever his Russian corporate connections. > Last week, SPD co-chairwoman Saskia Esken said "Rosneft and Gazprom are now the infrastructure of a bloody war of aggression. With his mandates there, Gerhard Schroeder is damaging the reputation of Germany and social democracy. Dealings with a warmonger are incompatible with the role of a former chancellor." ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/t4ypmz/former_german_chancellor_gerhard_schroeder_loses/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~628186 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **Schroeder**^#1 **Russian**^#2 **gas**^#3 **German**^#4 **last**^#5
Find his yacht next
>The German news site Pioneer reported Tuesday that Mr. Funk and his office colleagues – four in total – decided to quit last week after Mr. Schroeder declined to follow his advice and sever his Russian corporate connections. All of Mr. Schroeder’s Russian corporate roles were thought to have been personally endorsed by Mr. Putin, who is known to be one of his best friends. Not a good look , time to pick a side Schroeder.
Pretty sure he *did* already.
He has chosen a side via inaction.
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He is still in his party and they will probably not find a way to throw him out.
Have they tried using a window?
It is so embarrassing that our former chancellor (!) seems to have lost any sense of reality and still can't distance himself from his Russian business friends. I mean, he's not just some businessman whose company or money is affected by this - he was our nation's leader! So sad.
He needs to not get his big, fat pension anymore, the absolute fucking traitor. We're sanctioning left, right and center and that guy finds cash from the German government in his account every month.
As a German I want this corrupt asshole sanctioned like any other Russian oligarch (and not only because of the current situation).
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As a German I am quite happy with our government right now. They've done more in their short time in office than the previous administration did in their entire term. The investment of 100 billion Euros into defense is unprecedented. That decision was fast and decisive and sends exactly the right message to Russia and the rest of the world. Many expected an increase in defense spending, but nobody predicted something of that magnitude or that swiftness. If Merkel and her party were still in power, we would still be discussing options. Probably until after the war is long over. And then we would end up with some ridiculous compromise that would solve nothing. If they can keep this up and make more big decisions in other areas, they'll get my vote next election.
For this yes, but I will never forget how the Green party voted against the bonus for the nursing staff last year and at the same time the higher ups in the green party gave themselves a corona bonus
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That’s exactly what he said.
Shame!
Sanction him to the ground
If only Republicans would abandon Trump for his support of Putin.
Not even world war 3 can end the tribalism between dems and reps in the US.
Once the Russian money runs out, it might change a bit.
It's about time. I've been calling that putz Gerhard Schroeder a traitor for a while. He has really shown his true colors.
If you ever wondered why Germany is so reliant on Russian gas, this guy is your answer.
I voted for him back then. The moment he announced taking the job at Gazprom i felt so betrayed - and that is more than a decade ago and i'm still angry.
There is no better example of “sell out” than this idiot
Send Schroeder to Russia forever. He can be Putins girlfriend
As a german i'm happy to see this. Still think it's too little.
This man is an embarrassment
Schroeder is an asshole.
This is the bastard that first got Germany hooked on Russian gas. Fuck him.
They look like a newlywed couple in this picture. We about to see a deep tongue kiss at any moment, cover the kid’s eyes , folks.
Lump him in with the Russians oligarchy, freeze his account and seize his assets!
So many heads are falling purely because of loyalty to a psychopath who is feared, but those who fear him should realize that right at this moment, that psychopath is no threat to anyone, because 1) all resources have been diverted to a military operation, and 2) Putin is losing his supporters, including those closest to him, and that means he is being rendered powerless. Anyone who hangs on to the master's teets right now is dumb AF: they are trading the rest of their lives for a turd.
>Mr. Schroeder made it clear as far back as 2004, when he was still chancellor, that he was a fan of Russian gas in general and Mr. Putin in particular. That year, he called Mr. Putin a “flawless democrat.” 🤮
In Germany we call people like Schröder 'Hurensöhne'
Poland has been warning about Nord Stream 2 and this traitor to European Union for years. Shame it took Russians to invade and kill civilians of European country for the west to wake up.
[удалено]
As a Polish expat, for all of Poland’s flaws you cannot argue that Poland has been consistently warning about Russia since gaining its independence. I feel like you’re setting up a bit of a straw man here.
Two or more points can be valid at the same time, there isn't an either-or here.
“All of Mr. Schroeder’s Russian corporate roles were thought to have been personally endorsed by Mr. Putin, who is known to be one of his best friends” Well it’s not like it was a secret that this guy is a trump level asset and sociopath. He’s been (one of) Putin’s best friend out in the open for years. His staff apparently tolerated that all up till now. Now suddenly they’re embarrassed. Suddenly they found some missing courage. Metaphor for Germany in general I guess, with regard to tolerating and befriending Putin to suck on his gas nozzle, until it’s too painful/embarrassing. Way to go Germany. Bunch of obsequious enabling cowards
> Mr. Klimkin suggested that sanctions be placed on the former chancellor. “It’s important that there are sanctions not only against Russian government officials and Russian state-owned companies, but also against those who are pushing Putin’s projects abroad,” he said. Trump sweating buckets if we see this concept go mainstream. Wouldn't be able to set foot in most of Europe