Germany sticks to Russia sanctions after Trump diesel deal

The appearance of Germany’s Russia-friendly former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder at President Vladimir Putin’s birthday party earlier this week has drawn criticism in Germany.

Franziska Brantner, the co-leader of Germany’s Green party, called on Schröder’s Social Democrats (SPD) to revisit revoking Schröder’s party membership.

“Russia is now even attacking us in Germany with hybrid attacks. Schröder hasn’t learned anything from this. A new approach needs to be put on the table,” she told the Tagesspiegel newspaper.

“Schröder is celebrating Putin’s birthday with him, while civilians in Ukraine are once again dying as a result of Russian attacks. This is politically unacceptable,” said Brantner.

Anything less than expulsion from the party would be “a disastrous signal, not only to Ukraine but also to the people and their safety in our country,” Brantner added.

The SPD’s Hubertus Heil, who served as Germany’s labor minister from 2018 to 2025, also criticized Schröder.

“The warm embrace between Schröder and Putin in Moscow deeply outrages and disturbs me,” Heil told the Tagesspiegel.

Celebrating with a “dictator” whose “murderous imperialism causes horrific suffering every day” is “unjustifiable under any circumstances,” he said.

Putin celebrated his 74th birthday in Moscow on Wednesday. The Kremlin said Putin learned that Schröder was on a business trip in the Russian capital via Russian media reports. 

“The president invited his old friend to his home,” the Kremlin said, with the Russian government releasing pictures of Schröder and Putin smiling and clasping hands,

Schröder’s business and personal ties to Russia have drawn controversy since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

Schröder’s tax-payer financed Berlin office was closed in 2022 over his involvement in the Russian energy sector, but he fended off calls at the time by fellow party members to be expelled from the SPD.