BERLIN (AP) 鈥� German lawmakers agreed Thursday to strip former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of his office and staff after he maintained and defended his long-standing ties with Russia and its energy sector despite the invasion of Ukraine.
Sven Kindler, a financial policy spokesman for the Greens, one of the governing parties, tweeted that parliament's budget committee approved a change to the rules that would leave Schroeder's office 鈥渄ormant.鈥�
The move was expected after lawmakers with the governing coalition 鈥� which is led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats, Schroeder's party 鈥� on Wednesday proposed linking some of the privileges former chancellors enjoy to actual duties, rather than their status as ex-leaders.
To reduce the chances of a legal challenge, the proposal didn't explicitly mention Schroeder's ties to Russian companies or to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The ex-chancellor still will be entitled to bodyguards and a pension.
Schroeder, 78, led Germany from 1998 to 2005. He has become increasingly isolated in recent months due to his work for state-controlled Russian energy companies.
He is chairman of the supervisory board of Russian state energy company Rosneft and also has been involved with the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline projects.
Earlier this year, his office staff quit and Schroeder faced a fresh wave of outrage from former political allies after The New York Times quoted him saying that a massacre in Bucha, a community outside Ukraine's capital, 鈥渉as to be investigated鈥� but he didn鈥檛 think orders to kill Ukrainian civilians would have come from Putin, a longtime friend.
Saskia Esken, the co-leader of the Social Democrats, last month urged Schroeder to .
Finance Minister Christian Lindner welcomed Thursday's decision, tweeting that 鈥渁 former chancellor who today lobbies openly for Putin's criminal rule shouldn't be provided with an office by taxpayers for this.鈥�
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