| Gerhard Schröder im NY Times-Interview |  |
[https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/23/world/europe/schroder-germany-russia-gas-ukraine-war-energy.html?referringSource=articleShare]
Ausgewählte Zitate:
"In the interviews, Mr. Schröder, now 78, spoke with undiminished swagger, cracking jokes but arguing in essence that, well, if he got rich, then so did his country. When it came to Russian gas, everyone was on board, he pointed out, mocking his detractors over copious amounts of white wine."
"“I have always served German interests,” he added. “I do what I can do. At least one side trusts me.” That side is not the German side."
"But Mr. Schröder is undaunted. He remains chairman of the shareholder committee of Nord Stream, reportedly earning about $270,000 a year, and served as head of the supervisory board of Nord Stream 2, which built a second pipeline connecting Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, until it was shuttered before the war."
"Since 2017, he has also presided over the board of the Russian oil company Rosneft, earning another $600,000 a year, according to public records, on top of his monthly $9,000 government stipend as former chancellor."
Zu Nord Stream 1:
"“The next government continued with it seamlessly,” Mr. Schröder recalled. “Nobody in the first Merkel government said a word against it. No one!”"
Zu Nord Stream 2:
"His main allies on Nord Stream 2 in the Merkel government, said Christoph Heusgen, Ms. Merkel’s chief foreign policy adviser until 2017, were the economics minister and vice chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, and the foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, both Social Democrats like the former chancellor and both from his home state, Lower Saxony."
Für die Spionage-Abwehr vielleicht interessant: "Matthias Warnig, the chief executive of Nord Stream 2, who took part in 19 of the meetings in the report, has acknowledged having been a former spy of the Stasi, the former secret police of Communist East Germany. Stasi records show that, in February 1988, both he and Mr. Putin, when he was stationed in Dresden as a K.G.B. officer, were awarded medals for their service. But Mr. Warnig has denied reports that he had recruited spies for Mr. Putin in their old days.
In February 2015, Mr. Schröder took Mr. Warnig to see Mr. Gabriel to discuss cooperation with Russia, according to the list of meetings provided in the report. He also accompanied Nord Stream 2 executives to see Mr. Steinmeier’s ambassadors to Moscow and Brussels at the time.
Mr. Steinmeier declined to be interviewed for this article. Mr. Gabriel texted to say he only met “representatives of Russia and Gazprom between 2014 and 2016” to “avert a looming supply stop of Russia to Ukraine.”
He added: “Should you put my visits and meetings in Russia in a different context, I want to inform you now that I will initiate legal steps.”"
"They need oil and gas to pay for their budget. And we need oil and gas to heat and to keep the economy going.”
The reasoning explains why Mr. Schröder says he promoted the deal last year — even in the middle of Russia’s troop buildup — for the Russian oil company Rosneft to buy up the majority share of the critical oil refinery in Schwedt, in northeastern Germany. Although the strategic refinery went to a Russian company, Mr. Schröder argued that the deal was ultimately in Germany’s interest.
“We made sure that Shell couldn’t sell to some unknown private equity,” he said. “They would have sold it off immediately.”
“If the oil doesn’t flow anymore, Schwedt is finished,” he said, ‘‘with all the consequences that this has for northeast Germany, including Berlin.”"
Also ich könnte hier noch viel mehr Ausschnitte posten. Lest euch das Mal durch. Ich bin da gelinde gesagt etwas erschrocken von.
Abschließend eine Quizfrage: Ratet Mal von wem das hier kommt: "“Mr. Schröder is an honest man whom we respect and whose goal is first and foremost to promote the interests of his own country, the Federal Republic of Germany,” the Russian leader said."