MOSCOWJul 26 – The Kremlin said Tuesday that it believes former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is in Moscow and has not ruled out possible contact with him.
“As far as we know, he is in Moscow,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told the media when asked if the Kremlin is aware of reports that Schröder had traveled to Moscow on Tuesday.
“There is no organized meeting, but we do not rule out a possible contact,” added Peskov.
the german station RTL reported late Monday that Schröder is in Moscow, posting a photo of him on his website. To the question of RTL on whether he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Schröder said: “I am on vacation here for a few days. Moscow is a beautiful city.”
Schröder’s office in Germany did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on why he may have traveled to Moscow.
Gazprom said on Monday it will cut gas supplies to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to just 20% of capacity from Wednesday, citing the need to stop a turbine. Germany rejected this explanation.
Schröder has been a key figure in energy ties between the two countries, serving as Germany’s chancellor from 1998 to 2005 before taking a controversial post on the supervisory board of Moscow-controlled Russian oil company Rosneft.
He is still chairman of the shareholders’ committee of Nord Stream AG, the operator of the gas pipeline connecting Russia with Germany majority-owned by Gazprom, according to his LinkedIn profile.
A proponent of the Nord Stream pipeline, which carries Russian gas to Germany from under the Baltic Sea, he was appointed to a seat on Gazprom’s board of directors just three weeks before Moscow sent troops to Ukraine on February 24 in an invasion which the Kremlin calls a “special military operation”.
Dismayed by the former foreign minister’s refusal to distance himself from Putin including a face-to-face meeting in Moscow in Marchthe main German political parties agreed in May to strip him of his right to an office financed with German public funds, closing the taxpayer-funded operation and reassigning staff.
In the same month, Schröder rejected Gazprom’s appointment and left Rosneft’s board of directors.
