Ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) —Steinmeier was his closest collaborator for many years—spoke out
at the weekend. In an interview on the 75th anniversary of the German attack on the Soviet Union,
he recalled the “epochal crime” that had been committed by Nazi Germany when it invaded the Soviet Union
with the aim of “wiping it out, enslaving its people and destroying them.”
Schröder said he considered Bundeswehr participation in the NATO maneuvres “a great mistake,
against the background of our history.” He supported the “attempt by Foreign Minister Steinmeier
to progressively remove the sanctions (against Russia).” He explicitly defended his own friendship
with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saing, “We're friends, it stays that way.”
The former chancellor pointed the finger at the US. It was “not only Russia that caused crises,” he said.
The Iraq war of George W. Bush was “a decisive cause of the wars and civil wars in the Middle East,
not least of the emergence of IS.” Nevertheless, Schröder said, “there are people in the federal government
who regard America as the font of political wisdom.”
Gerhard Schröder (SPD)
Ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) —Steinmeier was his closest collaborator for many years—spoke out
at the weekend. In an interview on the 75th anniversary of the German attack on the Soviet Union,
he recalled the “epochal crime” that had been committed by Nazi Germany when it invaded the Soviet Union
with the aim of “wiping it out, enslaving its people and destroying them.”
Schröder said he considered Bundeswehr participation in the NATO maneuvres “a great mistake,
against the background of our history.” He supported the “attempt by Foreign Minister Steinmeier
to progressively remove the sanctions (against Russia).” He explicitly defended his own friendship
with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saing, “We're friends, it stays that way.”
The former chancellor pointed the finger at the US. It was “not only Russia that caused crises,” he said.
The Iraq war of George W. Bush was “a decisive cause of the wars and civil wars in the Middle East,
not least of the emergence of IS.” Nevertheless, Schröder said, “there are people in the federal government
who regard America as the font of political wisdom.”