Lars Klingbeil, photo from archyde

The co-chairman of the ruling Social Democratic Party of Germany, Lars Klingbeil, publicly called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal and announced the severance of friendly relations with ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Klingbeil stated this in an interview with Bild am Sonntag .

“Yes, Putin is a war criminal. He is responsible for this cruel war, for the murdered children, women and men, for broken families, for all criminal misfortunes,” Klingbeil said in response to the journalist’s questions.

In addition, Klingbeil, who previously had friendly relations with former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, said that this was in the past.

“Schroeder is completely isolated politically and socially. The SPD expects him to resign from his positions in Russian state-owned companies … What happened in the last few weeks is, of course, also a political break between me and Schroeder,” the politician said.

Klingbeil also criticized the policies of previous German governments towards Russia.

“All the parties that are responsible should ask themselves if they were on the right track,” said the SPD co-chairman.

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“There were clear warning signs – the war with Georgia in 2008, the annexation of Crimea in 2014, contract killings of Russian agents, the assassination attempt on Alexei Navalny. Yes, we all should have assessed what happened in Russia differently,” he said.

Schröder has come under fire in Germany and abroad for refusing to sever his close ties to Moscow in the aftermath of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Several members of his office have quit after he insisted on keeping his senior positions at the Kremlin-linked energy giants Rosneft and Gazprom.

At the same time, Schroeder, who is close to the President of the Russian Federation, met with Putin in an attempt to stop the war in Ukraine – according to media reports, the Ukrainian side asked for Schroeder’s mediation.