I personally thought it was unseemly that Gerhard Schröder joined up with Gazprom just days after losing the election last fall. I have nothing against someone wanting to make some decent money after serving in government for a number of years, but couldn’t he write his memoirs and charge for public speaking engagements like his old friend Bill Clinton? For an ex-chancellor to sign on with Vladamir Putin was a serious lapse in judgment. Now it has become an embarrassment to the SPD as it was revealed last week that the Red-Green government signed a secret loan guarantee with Gazprom duing the final days of the government for more than one billion euros. Schröder denies any knowledge of the guarantees and says that Gazprom doesn’t even need it, but the "sleaze factor" is huge and the damage to his reputation is irreparable. The fact that Schröder had to take his erstwhile political adversary Guido Westerwelle to court to prevent Westerwelle from criticizing Schröder’s Gazprom job in public only increases the damage that Schröder has inflicted on himself. There are now calls for an indepedent investigation of the loan guarantees coming from all the opposition parties:
"Schröder wird immer mehr zur Zumutung", kommentiert Bodo Ramelow, stellvertretender Vorsitzender der Linksfraktion, die Milliarden-Bürgschaft, die es immer wahrscheinlicher mache, dass Schröders "Vorteilsnahme nach dem Amt kräftig im Amt vorbereitet worden ist". Die Gazprom-Deals von Altkanzler Schröder würden immer "unappetitlicher", so Ramelow. Völlig unabhängig davon, ob der Konzern das von dessen Regierung verbürgte Kreditgeschäft annehme oder nicht, sei nun klar, "dass die Schröder-Regierung den Konzern im Zusammenhang mit dem Geschäft begünstigen wollte, das dem Altkanzler nun einen Aufsichtsratsvorsitz mit einem Jahressalär von 250.000 Euro einbringt". Das Ganze sei bereits geschehen, nachdem sich der neue Bundestag konstituiert hatte – "de facto am Parlament vorbei".
The sad fact is that Schröder may have secured a preferential treatment for Germany with respect to gas delivery as a result of his Gazprom supervisory board position, but he has increased the tension with other EU countries, especially Poland and the Baltic States – who have angered Putin with their commitment to democracy. Yes, Germany faces an energy crisis, but it is not because of gas distribution infrastructure. Rather, it is the problem of Putin’s unreliable leadership. The Ukraine experienced this first hand earlier in the winter. Meanwhile, as the Atlantic Review reports, Chancellor Merkel has organized an energy summit to discuss strategies for decreasing Germany’s dependence on Russia.
UPDATE: The New York TImes editorial staff weighs in on Mr. Schröder’s Gag Order.
