10月9日——德国政府发言人周五表示，德国总理弗里德里希·默茨对前总理格哈德·施罗德本周前往弗拉基米尔·普京的住所庆祝这位俄罗斯总统生日一事“深感愤怒”。
Oct 9 - Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz is "deeply outraged" by former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's visit to Vladimir Putin's home to celebrate the Russian president's birthday this week, a German government spokesperson said on Friday.
施罗德于1998年至2005年担任德国总理，因与俄罗斯商界及普京的密切关系而受到德国国内及国外的批评。尽管莫斯科于2022年入侵乌克兰，并随后引发西方多轮制裁，这种联系依然存在。
Schroeder, who served as chancellor from 1998 to 2005, has faced criticism in Germany and abroad over his links to Russian business and Putin, ties that have persisted despite Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and subsequent waves of Western sanctions. "Putin alone is responsible for the war in Ukraine.
发言人表示：“乌克兰战争的罪魁祸首只有普京。他的命令造成了难以估量的苦难、平民伤亡、家庭破碎以及无数死伤者。”他还说，“总理认为……施罗德先生参加这样的庆祝活动是完全不道德的。”普京于周四年满74岁。
His orders are the cause of immeasurable suffering, civilian casualties, families being torn apart, dead and wounded," the spokesperson said. "The chancellor sees ... it as downright immoral for Mr. Schroeder to attend such a celebration."
82岁的施罗德及其妻子索延·施罗德-金（有时负责其对外沟通）尚未立即回应路透社的置评请求。此次访问也招致了施罗德所属社会民主党（SPD）内部的批评。
Putin turned 74 on Thursday. Schroeder, 82, and his wife, So-Yeon Schroeder-Kim, who sometimes handles his communications, did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
据《南德意志报》报道，该党联合领袖、同时也是默茨领导的保守派联合政府中德国财政部长的拉斯·克林格拜尔称，鉴于乌克兰人民所遭受的苦难，此举“完全不可接受”。过去20年来，施罗德被任命为多间俄罗斯公司的高层职位。
The visit also drew criticism from within Schroeder's own Social Democratic Party (SPD). The party's co-leader Lars Klingbeil, who is also Germany's finance minister in Merz's conservative-led coalition, called it "completely unacceptable" in view of the suffering caused to Ukraine's people, according to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily.
卸任后不久，他成为由俄罗斯天然气工业股份公司（Gazprom）主导的波罗的海管道项目“北溪”的股东委员会主席，之后又在俄罗斯石油公司（Rosneft）担任高级职位。
Schroeder has been appointed to several high-ranking positions in Russian companies in the last 20 years.
今年早些时候，普京曾表示，施罗德将是其就欧洲新安全安排进行对话的首选对话伙伴，但这一提议立即遭到欧盟和默茨政府的拒绝。
Shortly after stepping down, he became chairman of the shareholders' committee of Nord Stream, the Gazprom-led Baltic Sea pipeline project he had championed while in office, and later held senior positions at Russian oil producer Rosneft.
上周，施罗德加入了俄罗斯零售商Hyperglobus的监事会。该公司是德国Globus Holding的拆分企业，在俄罗斯经营着20多家超市。
Earlier this year, Putin said Schroeder would be his preferred interlocutor for talks on new security arrangements for Europe, an idea immediately rejected by the European Union and Merz's government. Last week, Schroeder joined the supervisory board of Russian retailer Hyperglobus, a spin-off of Germany's Globus Holding which operates more than 20 supermarkets in Russia.