The Former German Chancellor said it was impossible for him to extend his mandate.
May 20, 2022 2:21 pm
BERLIN — Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder will leave the supervisory board of Russian oil company Rosneft, it announced Friday.
Schröder, who acted as chairman of Rosneft’s supervisory board, said it was impossible for him to extend his mandate, the company said in a statement quoted by German media.
The announcement comes a day after Germany’s governing parties decided to strip him of his taxpayer-paid office space in Berlin over his refusal to sever ties with Russia President Vladimir Putin despite the war in Ukraine.
The European Parliament on Thursday also adopted a resolution urging the EU to sanction Europeans like Schröder who are still on the boards of prominent Russian firms.
Asked about the resolution, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he did not think it was “necessary at the moment.” But he added that “it would be best if Gerhard Schröder resigned from his positions.”
How to respond to Schröder’s refusal to quit top jobs at Russian energy companies has been an issue of heated debate in Germany since the start of the war.
The former chancellor, who was nominated to the board of directors at Russian energy company Gazprom in February, had so far refused to give way. “I don’t do mea culpa,” he told the New York Times in an interview last month.
(C)POLITICO.EU 2022
The useful idiot is not useful anymore. Off into the trash bin with him…