German bank Sparkasse has stopped transferring money to the account of former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nord Stream 2 AG, the operator of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
This is the salary Mr. Schroeder received from Gazprom - the Russian gas giant that owns Nord Stream 2 AG.
Mr. Schroeder receives about 200,000 euros per 6 months and the money is transferred from the Luxembourg to his account. However, since mid-2024, Sparkasse has begun to reject the above money transfer transactions.
Bild sources said that Schroeder has received a warning letter that further money transfer transactions involving the Nord Stream 2 operator could put the bank at risk of US sanctions. However, former Chancellor Schroeder himself is not yet on the list of sanctioned players.
In June 2024, Mr. Belit Onay, who was a critic of Mr. Schroeder, became Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sparkasse Hannover branch. In 2022, Onay sought to revoke former Chancellor Schroeder's title of honorary citizen of Hanover city for the reason Schroeder maintained his relationship with Russia in the context of the conflict in Ukraine.
Gerhard Schroeder served as German Chancellor from 1998 to 2005, and was President of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1999 to 2004. After leaving German politics, he worked for Russian energy companies.
In January this year, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is scheduled to hold a hearing before a parliamentary committee investigating the activities of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern State Climate and Environment Protection Fund. The fund was set up to protect the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project from US sanctions.
However, the former German Chancellor was absent from the hearing and was later reported to have been hospitalized for severe symptoms of exhaustion. He was diagnosed with problems with memory, concentration and sleep.
Most recently, Bild reported that Gerhard Schroeder sent a letter to the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state parliament emphasizing that the previous German government's choice to import Russian gas was the right decision and he remained optimistic about the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.
"I would like to start with my views on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project. That is a positive viewpoint, unchanged. As Federal Chancellor, I always understood that Germany was a poor industrialized country with resources, and that the country's prosperity could only be maintained and developed if it maintained competitiveness in the global market. This requires a stable and low-cost electricity supply for the industry," Schroeder wrote.
Mr. Schroeder also emphasized that using gas as a transitional energy source before switching to renewable energy was not his own idea. This strategy was also supported by his predecessor - Mr. Helmut Kohl. Its always a reasonable and beneficial decision for Germany, he stressed.
