Merz 'deeply outraged' as Schröder joins Putin for birthday celebration in Moscow

The visit

Former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, 82, visited Vladimir Putin at his home to celebrate the Russian president's 74th birthday, the Kremlin said. In a post on Telegram, the Kremlin said Putin had learned from morning news reports that Schröder was in Moscow on business for the Globus company, and that the president 'invited his old friend to his home'. Photos posted on the platform show the two men shaking hands and smiling broadly. Russian television footage showed Schröder visiting a Hyperglobus store in Moscow on 7 October, where staff greeted him with applause. Schröder and his wife, So-Yeon Schröder-Kim, did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Berlin's response

A German government spokesperson said on Friday that Chancellor Friedrich Merz is 'deeply outraged' by the visit. The spokesperson said that, in the chancellor's view, attending the celebration was downright immoral. The spokesperson stressed that Putin alone is responsible for the war in Ukraine, and that his orders had caused immeasurable suffering, civilian casualties, families being torn apart, and dead and wounded. According to ANSA, the news of the meeting first spread through German media from Moscow.

Criticism within the SPD and CDU

Lars Klingbeil, co-leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) to which Schröder belongs and Germany's finance minister in Merz's conservative-led coalition, called the visit 'completely unacceptable' in view of the suffering caused to Ukraine's people, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Jürgen Hardt, foreign policy spokesperson of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, said he was deeply outraged and described the visit as a 'lack of taste like no other'. Hardt said he would no longer shake Schröder's hand and that, given his stance, Schröder belongs more in the AfD. He called for Schröder to be excluded from the SPD, and no party decision on that demand has been reported.

Ties to Russian business

Schröder served as chancellor from 1998 to 2005. Over the last 20 years he has been appointed to several high-ranking positions in Russian companies. Shortly after leaving office he became chairman of the shareholders' committee of Nord Stream, the Gazprom-led Baltic Sea pipeline project he had championed while in office, and he later held senior positions at the Russian oil producer Rosneft. Last week he joined the supervisory board of Russian retailer Hyperglobus, a spin-off of Germany's Globus Holding that operates more than 20 supermarkets in Russia. These ties have persisted despite Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and subsequent waves of Western sanctions.

Security talks proposal

In May, Putin said Schröder would be his preferred interlocutor for talks on new security arrangements for Europe. Notícias ao Minuto reported that Putin had suggested European Union countries use Schröder as a mediator to resolve the war in Ukraine. The European Union and Merz's government rejected the idea immediately. European foreign ministers also rejected the idea of Schröder serving as a representative of European countries in peace talks.