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Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has long been a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Now, he may be attempting to mediate to end the war in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin and Gerhard Schröder have been close friends for decades Gerhard Schröder, who was German Chancellor from 1998 to 2005, has had a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin for more than two decades. Now the news portal Politico and the German mass-circulation Bild newspaper report he has traveled to Moscow and met with the Russian president on Thursday evening. The trip was not coordinated with the German government,...

Breaking — EU Will Not Sanction Russian Oil and Gas…

Recently he had come under massive criticism, but now Gerhard Schröder is intervening in the Ukraine conflict: the ex-chancellor apparently held initial talks with Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Thursday in Moscow - but not on behalf of the federal government. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is in Moscow to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Ukraine war. Corresponding reports from the news portal "Politico" and the "Bild" newspaper were confirmed to the German Press Agency on Thursday evening. According to dpa information, the first talks between Schröder and Putin took place on Thursday. It was initially unclear whether...

Berlin has rejected calls to provide Kyiv with weapons in a week in which the U.K. and the U.S. reiterated their commitment to helping Ukraine's military amid soaring tensions over a buildup of Russian troops by its border. German defense minister Christine Lambrecht told the newspaper Welt am Sonntagthat there was "consensus in the federal government" that arms deliveries to Ukraine are "currently not helpful." While Lambrecht said Berlin is "standing on Kyiv's side," she said her country would not extend military support for Ukraine and emphasized other help it would provide, such as a field hospital worth €5.3 million...

A 3,300-year-old treasure trove of gold found in northern Germany has stumped German archeologists. One theory suggests that traders transported it thousands of miles from a mine in Central Asia, but other experts are skeptical. Archeologists in Germany have an unlikely new hero: former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. They have nothing but praise for the cigar-smoking veteran Social Democratic politician. Why? Because it was Schröder who, together with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, pushed through a plan to pump Russian natural gas to Western Europe. For that purpose, an embankment 440 kilometers (275 miles) long and up to 30 meters (100 feet)...

Are Berlin’s close energy ties with Moscow paying off? Data from Russia’s Federal Customs Service shows they might be after Germany paid less for natural gas from the world’s largest exporter than most other buyers. Only the U.K., which produces most of its own gas, had lower import costs among the biggest offtakers, according to the figures obtained by Bloomberg and detailed in the chart below. Chancellor Angela Merkel has worked to strengthen the energy relationship with Russia, bucking U.S. pressure to punish Vladimir Putin’s interference in Syria and elections across the west. Germany has backed projects such as Gazprom...

Fate of Russia's lost art treasure revealed after 60-year cover-up John Ezard, arts correspondent Saturday May 22, 2004 The Guardian (UK) Steven Spielberg would have called it Indiana Jones and the Eighth Wonder, and supplied a happy ending. In a damp cellar, guarded by deadly snakes and senile but savage SS men, the holy grail of Russian art treasures would triumphantly have been liberated. According to evidence disclosed today in Guardian Weekend, the truth is more squalid. Peter the Great's 18th century Amber Room, rated as the world's prime missing art treasure, valued at £150m, perished in the chaos of...

Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has criticized Georgia for the war over South Ossetia, calling Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili a gambler, and warning against allowing the country to join NATO. In an interview with Der Spiegel magazine due out on Monday, Schröder said he thought Georgia’s chances of joining the transatlantic alliance had moved “even further into the distance,” following the fighting with Russian forces. Schröder’s comments are sure to be scrutinized due to his close personal and political friendship with former president and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, as well as his acceptance of a Gazprom job immediately after leaving...

Germany's ruling party yesterday set the stage for a polarised electoral campaign as it endorsed a manifesto targeted mainly at leftwing critics of its recent economic reforms. The Social Democratic party, in its document, seeks to preserve Germany's current social welfare and labour regulations, and avoids spelling out reforms that economists believe are needed but which the leftwing core of the party fears. "All that is new can only succeed if it is grounded in the tried and tested," it claims. "We want to renovate our country, but we do not want any other country." The platform, entitled "Confidence in...

A SENIOR adviser to Gerhard Schröder, the German chancellor, has been accused of passing confidential documents to East Germany in the 1980s which revealed how the British Army and RAF would react to an attack by Soviet-led Warsaw Pact forces.The details were among more than 100 pages of material allegedly given to the East Germans by Karsten Voigt, 63, a former MP who now works for the German foreign ministry as co-ordinator of German-American relations. He spent yesterday at an international security conference attended by Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary. The German magazine Focus claimed this weekend that in...

A participant on the sidelines of talks in Berlin between Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Richard Holbrooke, a would-be secretary of state in a John Kerry presidency, told a story about the meeting and the theme of how a Kerry-friendly Europe would leap to America's aid in bringing stability to Iraq. (Or maybe hide under the bed.) "Schröder," the American said, "asked Holbrooke what Kerry would do if he were elected. Holbrooke replied one of the first things would be to get on the phone and invite him and President Jacques Chirac to the White House. The chancellor laughed out loud....

LONDON — At this week's NATO summit conference in Istanbul, it will be in the political interest of America's European adversaries — France's Jacques Chirac and Germany's Gerhard Schröder — to appear to cooperate with the coalition helping Iraq complete its liberation. At the same time, it is in the political interest of George W. Bush and Britain's Tony Blair to appear to be delighted with whatever safe and cheap aid that the Chirac-Schröder bloc allows NATO to offer instead of supplying alliance troops. In this way, the French and German leaders can tell their nations that no diplomatic cost...

German Businesses Head for Lower-Cost Shores As it becomes easier to operate in Poland, Hungary, and Czech Republic, even smaller companies are starting to relocate   Several times a day, a barge slowly makes its way across the Oder River from Poland to Germany, carrying a cargo upon which much of Berlin's economy rests. Literally. Aboard the vessel are freshly washed and pressed bedsheets bound for Berlin's finest business hotels. Not that German workers aren't capable of doing laundry. In fact, Fliegel Textilservice, an overnight-linen service for Berlin hotels such as the five-star Adlon, is German-owned, and it is equipped...