Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is on the list of candidates for the board of directors of Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned gas giant, according to a statement released by the company.
The name of the 77-year-old former Social Democrat chancellor appeared on a list of candidates approved by Gazprom, according to a statement from the group, but the names will have to be confirmed at the next general meeting of shareholders in June.
Schröder is already chairman of the board of directors of Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil group, and a member of the shareholder committee of Nord Stream 2, the gas pipeline made to transport gas from Russia to Germany, also built by Gazprom.
The former chancellor’s pro-Kremlin positions are unsettling Berlin, especially in the context of tensions between Moscow and Western countries around Ukraine.
Schröder recently warned Kyiv and defended Moscow’s decision to rally tens of thousands of Russian soldiers on the Ukrainian border.
The current German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, had to publicly guarantee that he would not be influenced by his predecessor in the context of the current crisis: “I didn’t ask him for advice and he didn’t give me any either.”
Germany cooperates closely with Russia in the field of energy. Currently, the country imports 55% of the gas it consumes from Russia.
Source: with agencies