Gerhard Schröder used an extensive interview to take his Putin propaganda to the extreme. The former chancellor shamelessly twists facts and blames the West for the war.

“A friend, a good friend / That’s the best thing in the world / A friend is always a friend / And when the whole world falls apart,” the “Comedian Harmonists” once sang. Does Vladimir Putin, who is known to speak good German, hum these songs when he thinks of Gerhard Schröder? He had reason to. Because the former chancellor defends the warmonger in the Kremlin so vehemently that Putin’s spokesman almost has to fear for his job.

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Schröder was recently in Moscow again and spoke there with Putin, the friend and “perfect democrat” who made Schröder a millionaire through lucrative jobs during his retirement as chancellor. In an interview with “Stern” and RLT/ntv, he has now reported on his talks: His one-sided conclusion: Not Putin, the West is to blame for everything. Schröder’s theses, which the Social Democrats are now ashamed of, are so hair-raising that Putin could run them as an infomercial on his propaganda channels.

Schröder describes the situation as follows: Only one of the five turbines is currently working. Because one has to be available as a reserve, one is broken, one is being serviced and the one repaired in Canada is in Mülheim instead of in Russia. Why? “That’s Siemens’ responsibility, if I see it correctly.”

dr Hugo Müller-Vogg is a journalist, book author and former editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).

It’s strange that out of four turbines, one is serviced and one is broken at the same time – but the reserve is not used. Can there be any other reason than that Putin doesn’t want exactly that?

Sure, warlord Putin wants nothing more than for the Germans to crawl to their backs here. And “Gas Gerd” agrees: “If you don’t want to use Nord Stream 2, you have to bear the consequences. And they will be huge in Germany too.” Never before has an ex-chancellor stabbed his own government in the back so clumsily – and one led by the SPD at that.

It is correct that when Schröder was voted out of office in 2005, the Federal Republic “was only 35 percent dependent”. Schröder continues: “At the end of the Merkel era, “our dependency was significantly higher.”

There is no brazen way to use correct numbers for wrong conclusions. Because Schröder conceals the fact that shortly before the end of his chancellorship he launched Nord Stream 1 and was rewarded by Putin with a lucrative post. The fact that Merkel is continuing its gas policy is another matter.

In other words, Putin feels compelled to take action against Ukraine and thus against the West. Especially since this West is based too one-sidedly on America. The anti-Americanism of the aging ex-Juso Schröder comes through.

The fact is: the Schröder friend attacked the Ukraine for no reason, is waging a brutal, dirty war there, has civilians tortured, raped and murdered like soldiers, is waging a gas war and is plunging other countries into famine. Of course, one day Putin would like to negotiate: about the final cession of Crimea and Donbass – but on his terms.

Well roared lion. But how should the concessions by the Russian side look like? In Schröder’s opinion, Putin will never give up Crimea anyway, and in Donbass, in his opinion, only the Ukrainians have violated the Minsk agreement. You can make it so easy for yourself if you want to make it easy for yourself.

Conclusion: Schröder seems to be hoping that one day, thanks to his good relations with the war criminal Putin, he will be able to slip into the role of peacemaker: “Maybe I can be useful again”. Of course, that assumes that Putin really sees Schröder as a friend and not just a useful idiot. Is Gerd really building on his friendship with Wladimir? Anyone who calls such a man his friend can only feel sorry for them.

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