Posted on 04/02/2006 9:23:09 AM PDT by lizol
Berlin confirms report of Gazprom credit under Schroeder govt
The German economy ministry has confirmed that the previous government of Gerhard Schroeder had guaranteed a credit of one billion euros (1.2 billion dollars) for the Russian group Gazprom's Baltic pipeline project.
An inter-ministerial commission rushed through a "decision in principle" on October 24 last year while waiting for a new coalition to be formed by now Chancellor Angela Merkel, a spokesman for the economy minister said, confirming reports published Saturday in the Suddeutsche Zeitung (SZ).
The report comes after Schroeder was voted in Thursday as head of the supervisory board of a consortium that plans to build the natural gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany.
Gazprom holds 51 percent of the consortium's shares.
In reaction to the press report, Schroeder said Saturday: "While I was head of the government, I had no knowledge of such a proposition and therefore had nothing to do with it."
The SZ noted that unusually the German state had backed the credit in case of political as well as economic risk, and that it benefits a foreign company in which the Russian government has a controlling stake.
Gazprom's hiring of Schroeder last December at an annual salary of 250,000 euros (300,000 dollars) touched off controversy, which the latest report has re-ignited.
Schroeder's successor as head of the regional state of Lower-Saxony, Christian Democrat Christian Wulff, has called for "explanations" about this "serious matter."
Well, I think it's time for the German prosecutors to take care about that scumbag.
Wonder what other "decision in principle" agreements the Russians have going around this globe? Maybe that G8 Summit that Putin is hosting in Russia come June will shed sunlight upon Putin's grand strategy of "energy security".
ping
Gerhard would look great doing the perp walk.
IchBIN mit Ihren Ansichten, lizol. Schroeder fungierte wie ein Verbrecher einverstanden.
Great :-)
And now the translation please - as I stopped my German language education on the level of "Das is eine Lampe" :-)))
What a crook.
Cancel the guarantee, and watch the cat fights.
Russian state owned, Schroeder pushed it while still in office, now he's an exec in this firm; but is this a big issue to most Germany? No.
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