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Russia's biggest natural gas company Gazprom has ambitious plans for the future, deputy chairman Alexander Medvedev tells BBC News in an interview. "We would like to transform our company from being the world's leading gas company into a world leading energy company," says Mr Medvedev, who is also Russia's deputy Prime Minister. Not only are the world's two largest energy markets - China and the US - on the radar of the state-controlled giant, which is 51% owned by the government. It also has firm ambitions to raise its presence in European energy markets, and it is preparing to expand...

OLD politicians never die, they just fade into boardrooms. The passage of Gerhard Schröder from public office accords with the dictum, except that he stubbornly refuses to fade. The former Chancellor of Germany took just a fortnight’s leave on quitting office before accepting his post at NorthEuropean Gas Pipeline, a company that will lay a pipe the length of the Baltic Sea. Barely enough time to do a round of after-dinner speeches, let alone write his memoirs, before he was appointed head of the supervisory board of Gazprom’s European venture. To make matters worse, Herr Schröder’s eager acceptance of a...

France, Germany and Russia. What a lovely place Europe would be without them. Throughout history they have constantly been bullying their neighbours. When the big ones team up, the little nations of continental Europe better beware or they will be gang raped, like Poland in 1939. This explains why it is imperative that Europe be Atlanticist. If it turns continental the three big ones will extort the little ones. The latest proof of this has just been provided in a new German-Russian deal that resembles the pact between Adolf Hitler and Joe Stalin to squeeze Eastern Europe. Apart from Adolf...

Gerhard Schroeder, who less than a month ago was Germany's chancellor, has agreed to become chairman of the company that is building a gas pipeline from Russia, across the Baltic Sea to Germany, and on through Western Europe. In many countries, Schroeder would now be charged with the crime of conflict of interest. His apparent ethical lapse is magnified by the fact that, at this very moment, Russia is threatening to cut off Ukraine's gas supplies if that country does not give in to the pricing demands of the Kremlin's state-owned gas behemoth, Gazprom. Russia's strategic task is obvious: cutting...

IT'S THE SORT of behavior we have -- sadly -- come to expect from some in Congress. But when Gerhard Schroeder, the former German chancellor, announced last week that he was going to work for Gazprom, the Russian energy behemoth, he catapulted himself into a different league. It's one thing for a legislator to resign his job, leave his committee chairmanship and go to work for a company over whose industry he once had jurisdiction. It's quite another thing when the chancellor of Germany -- one of the world's largest economies -- leaves his job and goes to work for...

Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder landed a job Friday as board chairman for a Russian-German gas pipeline that he championed while in office, a post that deepens his already close relationship with the Russian government and President Vladimir Putin. At a groundbreaking ceremony about 250 miles north of Moscow, Alexei Miller, the chief executive of Gazprom, the Russian energy giant that holds a majority stake in the pipeline partnership, said the Schroeder-led board would be involved in "reaching all strategic decisions on all areas of the company's activity." In September, Schroeder and Putin signed an agreement on behalf of their...

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...

<p>The former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will be the chairman of the supervisory board of the pipeline-syndicate NEGP Company, said the boss of the Russian corporate group GAZPROM Alexej Miller during a celebration for the start of construction of the new pipeline through the Balic Sea in Babajewo.</p>

Schroeder takes over guidance job at Gazprom consortium Already in its term of office as chancellors Gerhard Schroeder was noticeable because of its good contacts to the Kremlin. Now he transfers a prominent role in the consortium, which builds the disputed Baltic Sea pipeline from Russia to Germany. Babajewo - the old Federal Chancellor becomes a supervisory board boss of the pipeline consortium NEGP company actively, said the boss of the Russian gas company Gazprom, Alexej Miller, today in Babajewo at the edge of the ceremony to the commencement of construction of the pipeline. It is to represent the interests...

The CIA in Europe Berlin's Silence for Washington By Matthias Gebauer in BerlinGerhard Schröder's government had detailed information on how the CIA operated in Europe -- and said nothing. The lower echelons of the administration even co-operated actively. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is likely to expect the same silent complicity from the new chancellor, Angela Merkel. DDP Planespotters, hobby airplane photographers, say they noticed an increase in the number of flights at the Frankfurt Airport between 2002 and 2004. In his heyday as leader of Germany, Gerhard Schröder was always ready to demonstrate indignation at how George W. Bush waged his war...

Germany may finally know the cast of politicians that is going to take over the reins of power, but chancellor-designate Angela Merkel has her work cut out for her. She is now surrounded by a motley crew of power hungry egos just waiting for her first mistake to pounce. To succeed, she'll have to be part lion tamer and part tight rope walker.

Germany's new government line-up began taking take shape as the Social Democrats said party chief Franz Muentefering would become the number two to incoming conservative chancellor Angela Merkel. Muentefering, a close ally of outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, would also hold the post of labour minister, senior party official Matthias Platzeck said Thursday. He confirmed that the key finance and foreign ministries, will respectively go to Peer Steinbrueck, a state premier, and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the current minister in the chancellory. The 49-year-old Steinmeier is also a close ally of Schroeder and a smooth political operator who has earned the respect even...

PARIS (AP) - A stoic atmosphere prevailed Friday at outgoing German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's farewell dinner with French President Jacques Chirac, one of his closest allies on issues ranging from Europe's future to the Iraq war. "Let's not be too sentimental or else we'll have to get out our handkerchiefs," Schroeder said before dinner at the Elysee Palace. Schroeder is to step down after Chancellor-designate Angela Merkel formally takes office. Every six weeks, Chirac and Schroeder have got together for informal dinners, harmonizing their policies. They hugged warmly as Schroeder got out of the car Friday. Through Chirac, "I have...

WASHINGTON - U.S. President George W. Bush telephoned outgoing German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder Thursday to thank him for his service and to offer his best wishes for the years ahead. "While the two leaders had differences at times on policy, the president said that he enjoyed working with Chancellor Schroeder," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "The president expressed his and Mrs. Bush's best wishes to Chancellor and Mrs. (Doris) Schroeder as he prepares to leave office." Schroeder steadfastly opposed Bush's decision to invade Iraq and helped rally other countries against the U.S. position at the U.N. Security Council. German...

<p>Gerhard Schröder, ousted German chancellor, continues to make life difficult for his successor. In his latest snub to Angela Merkel, he has decided to attend the European Union summit at Hampton Court, London on October 27.</p> <p>By representing Germany a mere three weeks before he is due to step down, Mr Schröder is proving less of a gentleman than Helmut Kohl, his predecessor.</p>

Schröder bows out with a dig at Blair and Bush By Kate Connollyin Berlin (Filed: 13/10/2005) Germany's outgoing chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, took swipes at Britain and America yesterday as he announced that he would not be part of the next government. In a speech to trade unionists in his home town of Hanover, he criticised Tony Blair over his vision for the future of the European Union. Gerhard Schröder yesterday "I say to my British friend that people in Germany, in Europe, do not want complete denationalisation," he said. "They want a state that is not in front of their...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who has led Germany since 1998, said for the first time on Wednesday he would not play a role in the next government, in an emotional farewell including broadsides at the United States and Britain. "I will not be a part of the next government — definitely not be part of it," a tearful looking Schroeder told a rapt audience of union members in his home city of Hanover. He quickly composed himself, hitting his stride in a passionate defense of a strong German state and lashing out at "Anglo-Saxon" economic policies favoured in...

Angela Merkel's new coalition government will work toward stronger ties with the United States and scale back on the close relationship outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had with Russian President Vladimir Putin, say officials from both parties in the future Cabinet. The officials say that foreign policy has not been a divisive issue in the coalition negotiations between Mrs. Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Mr. Schroeder's Social Democratic Party (SPD) since last month's inconclusive election. But even though they insist there will be no "major substantive change" under Mrs. Merkel's leadership, they say Berlin will correct Mr. Schroeder's excesses in...

Outgoing German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder aimed a broadside at US President George W. Bush, saying Hurricane Katrina showed what happened when a state neglected its duty. Schroeder made his comments in a speech to a trade union in Hanover in which he warned of the dangers of eroding the welfare functions of the state. "I can think of a recent disaster that shows what happens when a country neglects its duties of state towards its people," said Schroeder, who will soon cede his post to conservative rival Angela Merkel. "My post as chancellor, which I still hold, does not allow...