Il Nuovo Postiglione - German leader outraged at Schroeder birthday visit to Putin

The Kremlin said on Thursday that Putin had invited his "old friend" Schroeder to join him for his 74th birthday after learning that the former German leader was in Moscow.

Asked about the incident, German government spokesman Steffen Meyer said Merz was "deeply outraged".

"Putin bears sole responsibility for the war in Ukraine," he told a press conference.

"His orders are the cause of the immeasurable suffering inflicted there every day -- civilian casualties, families torn apart, dead and wounded."

Merz "considers it downright immoral for Mr. Schroeder to be celebrating with Mr. Putin on such a day," Meyer said.

Photos released by the Russian presidency showed the two men shaking hands and smiling.

Schroeder, a Social Democrat who led Germany from 1998 to 2005, has long cultivated a close relationship with Putin -- and maintained deep Russian business ties since leaving office, including a lucrative post at gas giant Gazprom.

Criticism of Schroeder's ties with Russia intensified after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Schroeder, 82, was stripped of some privileges granted to former German chancellors due to his closeness to the Russian president.

According to the Kremlin, Schroeder was in Moscow for one of his latest Russian business engagements -- this time as a newly named supervisory board member for the Russian supermarket chain Hyperglobus.

In May, Putin suggested that countries in the European Union should use Schroeder as a mediator to resolve the ongoing war in Ukraine. This proposal was quickly dismissed by EU governments.

G.Palmiero--INP