Schroeder assailed for taking gas job

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BERLIN -- Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder faces mounting accusations of "disgusting" sleaze after accepting a top job on a Russian-German gas pipeline project that he helped set up in his final weeks in office.

The Bundestag lower house of parliament yesterday held a special session to debate the issue, which threatens to tarnish Mr. Schroeder's reputation weeks after he handed over the chancellorship to Angela Merkel.

The affair "compromises Germany as a state," European Union Commission Vice President Siim Kallas said.

State-owned Russian gas firm Gazprom announced last Friday that Mr. Schroeder will become supervisory board chairman of the North European Gas Pipeline Co., a joint venture between Gazprom and German firms E.ON and BASF to build a pipeline through the Baltic Sea and pump Siberian gas to Germany.

Analysts and politicians from all parties, including Mr. Schroeder's Social Democrats, balked at the notion of a German leader taking Russian paychecks and said the move smacked of favoritism, given Mr. Schroeder's close friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr. Schroeder and Mr. Putin were instrumental in arranging the joint venture, announced two weeks before Germany's September election.

The affair also revived criticism that Mr. Schroeder's ties with Mr. Putin led him to overlook abuses of democracy and human rights in Russia.

The $6 billion project has caused a diplomatic row with Poland and the Baltic states, which are being bypassed by the pipeline and stand to lose gas transit revenues as a result.

Mr. Schroeder did not attend the debate yesterday in the Bundestag, where Greens Member of Parliament Matthias Berninger called the job "politically disgusting."

"Herr Schroeder, reject this dubious job; you don't need it," he said.