Photo from UNIAN
One of Schroeder's last acts before being turned out of office in 2005 was authorizing Nord Stream.
In the light of the growing tension between Western countries and Russia, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has called for imposing sanctions against former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder as the most important lobbyist of Vladimir Putin around the world.
Klimkin told Bild it is important to impose sanctions against those who are engaged in promoting Putin's projects abroad, Deutsche Welle reports.
"Schroeder is Putin's most important lobbyist in the world, so it's necessary to check how the EU can act in this situation," the minister said.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Putin has worked with astonishing success to reorganize energy logistics in Europe to isolate, threaten and intimidate strategic countries, especially Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic nations. Schroeder has been his vital helpmate at every step.
One of Mr. Schroeder's last acts before being turned out of office in 2005 was authorizing Nord Stream, a pipeline bypassing key territories and controlled by Russia's Gazprom. Weeks later, at Mr. Putin's arrangement, he took up Nord Stream's lucrative chairmanship.
He has since added the chairmanship of Nord Stream 2, a second proposed pipeline that Germany's now-resurrected coalition government previously approved, though with great reluctance, at the urging of Schroeder's former party, the Social Democrats. He added a third, impressive title in September, chairman of Rosneft, the state-owned Russian oil giant at the heart of the Putin kleptocracy.