Schröder, Gerhard Fritz Kurt

(1944– )

   German politician. Gerhard Schröder served as Germany’s chancellor from 1998 to 2005. During that time, he developed a close personal relationship with Vladimir Putin. Putin’s fluency in German and Schröder’s strident opposition to the United States–led invasion of Iraq in 2003 allowed the two to cement a mutually beneficial “strategic partnership.” Schröder and his wife’s adoption of two orphans from Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg created further bonds of comradeship between the two world leaders. Schröder was criticized at home for extolling Putin’s “flawless” commitment to democracy, as well as for his willingness to sacrifice his nation’s energy security and the economic stability of Poland and the Baltic States to secure direct natural gas pipelines from Russia to Germany, notably Gazprom’s Nord Stream project. After he stepped down from power, he accepted the position of chairman of the board at Nord Stream AG, a consortium of investors backing the controversial pipeline. Since leaving office, he has criticized the recognition of Kosovo and blamed Mikheil Saakashvili for the South Ossetian War, positions that are quite popular in Russian political circles.

   See also European Union; Foreign relations; Middle East.