Now G. Schroeder can deposit his paychecks in his German bank account rather than in the secret Swiss account he formerly used...

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Always loathesome, Gerhard Schroeder has added a startling conflict of interest to his C.V.

Germany's Schroeder Joins Russian-German Gas Pipeline Project

Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will lead the shareholders committee for a German- Russian gas-pipeline project to pump gas under the Baltic Sea, OAO Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller said today.

State-controlled Gazprom began building the more than 4- billion-euro ($4.7 billion) North European gas pipeline project today in the town of Babaeyvo in Russia's Volodga region, north of Moscow.

The pipeline will allow Gazprom to ship gas directly to Germany, bypassing Poland, Ukraine and Belarus. It will carry 27.5 billion cubic meters of gas a year in 2010 and twice that much by 2012, Miller said. Gazprom will raise gas exports to Europe 4.1 percent to 151 billion cubic meters in 2006 following a 3.1 percent jump this year as demand and prices rise. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000100&sid=agPQmIdYSkbQ&refer=germany

In more news, look to Chirac to become Iran's Secretary of Defense and Anti-Semitism upon retiring.

IrmtraudL, Monday, 12 December 2005 00:13 (nineteen years ago)

schroeder getting his pay direct from moscow non shockah

t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Monday, 12 December 2005 14:50 (nineteen years ago)

I don't know how you can scove at Gerhard.

i) he eats what he likes
ii) he has lovely hair
iii) he didn't invade Iraq

DV (dirtyvicar), Monday, 12 December 2005 17:40 (nineteen years ago)

Everything Schröder has said for the last 4 - 6years should be measured against this. Total fraud.

bosco, Monday, 12 December 2005 20:32 (nineteen years ago)

You need an army to invade Iraq. One of the many reasons the german pacifist posturing was so self-serving and vacant.

bosco, Monday, 12 December 2005 20:35 (nineteen years ago)

Wow, even the Washington Post, hardly known for intelligent editorializing, has jumped on board. Not that anyone cares what Schroeder and Germany do--they're against the Iraq war so they must be humanitarians at heart. Russia, the next time bomb: it's got it all. 1. AIDs, nukes, and islamic terrorists. Let the anarchy begin by freezing out eastern europe.

Gerhard Schroeder's Sellout


Tuesday, December 13, 2005; Page A26

IT'S THE SORT of behavior we have -- sadly -- come to expect from some in Congress. But when Gerhard Schroeder, the former German chancellor, announced last week that he was going to work for Gazprom, the Russian energy behemoth, he catapulted himself into a different league. It's one thing for a legislator to resign his job, leave his committee chairmanship and go to work for a company over whose industry he once had jurisdiction. It's quite another thing when the chancellor of Germany -- one of the world's largest economies -- leaves his job and goes to work for a company controlled by the Russian government that is helping to build a Baltic Sea gas pipeline that he championed while in office. To make the decision even more unpalatable, it turns out that the chief executive of the pipeline consortium is none other than a former East German secret police officer who was friendly with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, back when Mr. Putin was a KGB agent in East Germany. If nothing else, Mr. Schroeder deserves opprobrium for his bad taste.

But the announcement should also raise questions in German voters' minds about the real reasons Mr. Schroeder was so keen to see this pipeline project launched. The pipeline has cost Germany diplomatically by infuriating its Central European and Baltic neighbors. They point out that the Russian government chose to use the sea route rather than run a new pipeline alongside one that already exists on land, despite the far greater expense. The only possible reason for doing so was political: The Baltic Sea pipeline could allow Russia, a country that has made political use of its energy resources, to cut off gas to Central Europe and the Baltic states while still delivering gas to Germany. Many have wondered why Germany chose to go along with this project. Could it have been because the former chancellor realized that he was, in effect, creating his own future place of employment?

On a broader level, Mr. Schroeder's decision to swap his job with the German government for a job funded by the Russian government should raise questions for German voters about their country's relationship with Russia. During his seven years as chancellor, Mr. Schroeder went out of his way to ignore the gradual suppression of political rights in Russia and to play down the significance of Russia's horrific war in Chechnya. Throughout his term in office, Mr. Schroeder thwarted attempts to put unified Western pressure on Russia to change its behavior. We can only hope that Germany's new chancellor, Angela Merkel, uses this extraordinary announcement as a reason to launch a new German policy toward Russia, one based on something other than Mr. Schroeder's private interests.

GazPromenade, Tuesday, 13 December 2005 05:19 (nineteen years ago)

This is really bad. No one cares?

franck, Tuesday, 13 December 2005 14:53 (nineteen years ago)

russia has AIDS?!??!?!?!?

kenneth, Tuesday, 13 December 2005 16:01 (nineteen years ago)

all the anons shd get off cheney's dick.

Theorry Henry (Enrique), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 16:04 (nineteen years ago)


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