German politicians call for Punishment ex-chancellor Schröder for Putin ties

Politicians from across the German political spectrum wanted former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to be subjected to sanctions for his close ties to and defence of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Schroder has been in support of Putin since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Schröder was the Chancellor of Germany between 1998 and 2005.

He headed the supervisory board of the Russian state energy giant Rosneft and chairs the shareholders' committee of the pipeline company Nord Stream.

He has failed to offer any criticism of Putin in the wake of his country's invasion of Ukraine.

Schröder "belongs on the sanctions list of Putin profiteers,'' Moritz Körner, a leading member of the pro-business FDP said.

He told the Handelsblatt newspaper on Wednesday, adding that the former chancellor was Putin's most important man in Germany.

Roderich Kiesewetter, a foreign policy expert from the conservative CDU, also called for sanctions.

"The fact that Schröder still does not distance himself from Putin and Russia only shows how deeply he is in Putin's service,'' he said.

Reinhard Bütikofer of the Greens called for sanctions on Schröder and other former European politicians "who have since sold out to Vladimir Putin''.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Schröder outright defended the head of the Kremlin against accusations of war crimes.

He said that the order for mass killings had likely come from lower-ranking officials, not Putin.