The German government distanced itself from former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder Tuesday after he was spotted exchanging hugs in Saint Petersburg with Russian President Vladimir Putin as the Ukraine crisis rages.
A senior advisor to Chancellor Angela Merkel said Schroeder, her Social Democrat predecessor in office, had "no mandate whatsoever from the government" to meet with Putin after the two men attended a party together.
"It is clear that he has not been active in politics for some time," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
An AFP correspondent saw Putin and Schroeder, longtime friends, greeting each other warmly at the historic Yusupov palace, an official residence in Saint Petersburg, amid Russia's worst standoff with the West since the Cold War.
Photos of the encounter drew wide media coverage in both countries.
The two smiled and embraced before heading indoors to join other guests for a closed-door event, a belated celebration of Schroeder's 70th birthday on April 7.
Schroeder, who was chancellor from 1998 to 2005, is now head of the shareholders' committee of Nord Stream AG, which runs a strategic pipeline that carries Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea.
Nord Stream, which sponsored the bash, said Tuesday that other German officials attended the party including a leading conservative MP, Philipp Missfelder, regional state premier Erwin Sellering and Germany's ambassador to Russia, Ruediger Freiherr von Fritsch.
Schroeder's office said only that he attended the event as part of his affiliation with Nord Stream.
He was nominated to the post just weeks after leaving office by Russia's gas giant Gazprom, which holds the majority stake in the pipeline project that was launched in 2005 and began transporting gas in 2011.
He and his wife have also adopted two Russian children, reportedly with Putin's help.
- 'Flawless democrat' -
Schroeder has sparked outrage in Germany for his unwavering defence of the Russian president, whom he has described in the past as a "flawless democrat", even as Moscow faces isolation over the Ukraine crisis.
Last month Schroeder compared Moscow's annexation of Crimea to NATO's intervention in Kosovo in 1999, a parallel Merkel rejected as "shameful".
And he has spoken out against European Union sanctions on Russia.
Russia's relations with European countries, including Germany, have soured in recent months over Moscow's actions in Ukraine.
The EU and the United States on Monday introduced a fresh wave of sanctions, with the EU adding 15 more people to a blacklist accused of fomenting chaos in Ukraine.
Schroeder's Social Democrats, now junior partners in Merkel's "grand coalition" government, have been at pains to distance themselves from their former leader as the turmoil in Ukraine mounts.
Another senior German official, when asked whether Schroeder could be used to help "maintain ties with Russia" in the crisis, said the government had no need of such assistance and noted that Merkel had been in regular contact with Putin by telephone.
Merkel's parliamentary group leader, Volker Kauder, said the chummy meeting was "not helpful in the current context", while Volker Beck of the opposition Greens blasted it as "embarrassing" and "a sad chapter in the history of political opportunism".
The Greens were Schroeder's coalition partners while he was chancellor.
"I hope the Putin-Schroeder meeting will above all help to free the members of the OSCE mission in eastern Ukraine," Beck added in the daily Handelsblatt, referring to observers taken hostage Friday by pro-Russian separatists, including four German nationals.
The Social Democrats' parliamentary group leader, Thomas Oppermann, told the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung he was "sure" Schroeder had taken up the hostages' cause with Putin.
But news website Spiegel Online said Schroeder was making a "mockery of Berlin's foreign policy" while Merkel's government tries to "prevent his friend Vladimir from carrying out the policies of a power-drunk hegemon in Eastern Europe".
The German government distanced itself from former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder Tuesday after he was spotted exchanging hugs in Saint Petersburg with Russian President Vladimir Putin as the Ukraine crisis rages.
A senior advisor to Chancellor Angela Merkel said Schroeder, her Social Democrat predecessor in office, had “no mandate whatsoever from the government” to meet with Putin after the two men attended a party together.
“It is clear that he has not been active in politics for some time,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
An AFP correspondent saw Putin and Schroeder, longtime friends, greeting each other warmly at the historic Yusupov palace, an official residence in Saint Petersburg, amid Russia’s worst standoff with the West since the Cold War.
Photos of the encounter drew wide media coverage in both countries.
The two smiled and embraced before heading indoors to join other guests for a closed-door event, a belated celebration of Schroeder’s 70th birthday on April 7.
Schroeder, who was chancellor from 1998 to 2005, is now head of the shareholders’ committee of Nord Stream AG, which runs a strategic pipeline that carries Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea.
Nord Stream, which sponsored the bash, said Tuesday that other German officials attended the party including a leading conservative MP, Philipp Missfelder, regional state premier Erwin Sellering and Germany’s ambassador to Russia, Ruediger Freiherr von Fritsch.
Schroeder’s office said only that he attended the event as part of his affiliation with Nord Stream.
He was nominated to the post just weeks after leaving office by Russia’s gas giant Gazprom, which holds the majority stake in the pipeline project that was launched in 2005 and began transporting gas in 2011.
He and his wife have also adopted two Russian children, reportedly with Putin’s help.
– ‘Flawless democrat’ –
Schroeder has sparked outrage in Germany for his unwavering defence of the Russian president, whom he has described in the past as a “flawless democrat”, even as Moscow faces isolation over the Ukraine crisis.
Last month Schroeder compared Moscow’s annexation of Crimea to NATO’s intervention in Kosovo in 1999, a parallel Merkel rejected as “shameful”.
And he has spoken out against European Union sanctions on Russia.
Russia’s relations with European countries, including Germany, have soured in recent months over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.
The EU and the United States on Monday introduced a fresh wave of sanctions, with the EU adding 15 more people to a blacklist accused of fomenting chaos in Ukraine.
Schroeder’s Social Democrats, now junior partners in Merkel’s “grand coalition” government, have been at pains to distance themselves from their former leader as the turmoil in Ukraine mounts.
Another senior German official, when asked whether Schroeder could be used to help “maintain ties with Russia” in the crisis, said the government had no need of such assistance and noted that Merkel had been in regular contact with Putin by telephone.
Merkel’s parliamentary group leader, Volker Kauder, said the chummy meeting was “not helpful in the current context”, while Volker Beck of the opposition Greens blasted it as “embarrassing” and “a sad chapter in the history of political opportunism”.
The Greens were Schroeder’s coalition partners while he was chancellor.
“I hope the Putin-Schroeder meeting will above all help to free the members of the OSCE mission in eastern Ukraine,” Beck added in the daily Handelsblatt, referring to observers taken hostage Friday by pro-Russian separatists, including four German nationals.
The Social Democrats’ parliamentary group leader, Thomas Oppermann, told the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung he was “sure” Schroeder had taken up the hostages’ cause with Putin.
But news website Spiegel Online said Schroeder was making a “mockery of Berlin’s foreign policy” while Merkel’s government tries to “prevent his friend Vladimir from carrying out the policies of a power-drunk hegemon in Eastern Europe”.
