Schroeder faces criticism over planned role at Russian gas consortium.

Pravda ^ | 2005-12-09

[lizol]

Schroeder faces criticism over planned role at Russian gas consortium

23:26 2005-12-09

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder faced criticism Friday over plans to take on a leading position at a consortium building a gas pipeline between Russia and Germany.

As chancellor, Schroeder enjoyed a close personal and professional relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But now critics question the ethics of him standing to gain personally from a major financial deal that he supported in his role as chancellor.

"It stinks," said Reinhard Buetikofer, co-chairman of Germany's Greens, which had been the junior party in a coalition with Schroeder's Social Democrats until September. The Social Democrats continue to govern along with the conservative Christian Democrats in a so-called grand coalition, while the Greens are in the opposition.

Schroeder is to become chairman of Gazprom's shareholder committee, a post roughly comparable to board chairman, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller's spokesman Sergei Kuprianov said in Russia on Friday.

Rainer Bruederle, a leading member of Germany's pro-business FDP party, said he hopes Schroeder will only hold an honorary post, otherwise the suspicion would arise that the former chancellor cannot distinguish between public and private affairs.

Earlier in the day, officials sealed the first link in the natural gas pipeline, which will run along the Baltic seabed and bring the resources of Russia's gas fields to the German market.

Russian gas giant OAO Gazprom, which will lead the consortium building the pipeline, is the world's largest gas producer and supplies a quarter of Europe's natural gas.

The first section of the pipeline is scheduled to begin operation in 2010, reports AP.