Saturday, April 01, 2006

Gazprom buys German...Chancellor (ex)

Critics of former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder have lambasted him for accepting the chairmanship of the German-Russian gas pipeline project after his government guaranteed credit for the venture.

"This affair stinks terribly," said Guido Westerwelle, president of the right-of-center opposition Free Democrat party, who has already been sued by Schroeder for previous attacks about this affair.

The economy ministry confirmed Saturday that the Schroeder government had guaranteed a credit of one billion euros (1.2 billion dollars) for the Russian group Gazprom's Baltic pipeline project.

An inter-ministerial commission rushed through a "decision in principle" on October 24 last year while waiting for a new coalition to be formed by now Chancellor Angela Merkel, a spokesman for the economy minister said, confirming a report published Saturday in the Suddeutsche Zeitung (SZ).

Gazprom's hiring of Schroeder last December at an annual salary of 250,000 euros (300,000 dollars) touched off controversy, which the latest report has re-ignited.

Schroeder was voted in Thursday as head of the supervisory board of the consortium that plans to build the natural gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany.

Gazprom holds 51 percent of the consortium's shares.


Read the rest here.

"Rushed through on principle..."

*wipes tears*

That's really funny...

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