Roman Abramovich met Gerhard Schröder in Moscow last week while the former German chancellor was trying to broker an end to the war, it was reported yesterday.
Schröder, 77, was the first prominent western politician to speak to President Putin in person since the invasion. The pair, who established a friendship during Schröder’s chancellorship in the early 2000s, talked for several hours last week but little else is known about the meeting. Ukraine denied a claim from Schröder’s wife that it had asked him to act as a mediator.
The German newspaper Bild said that Schröder had held negotiations with Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea football club, during the same trip.
Abramovich denies any political connection to Putin. He has been subjected to sanctions by Britain after MPs used parliamentary privilege to identify him as one of 35 oligarchs who belong to the president’s “kleptocracy”. The European Union followed suit yesterday.
According to Bild’s account, which could not immediately be verified, Abramovich entered Schröder’s luxury hotel near the Kremlin through a side door and they spoke for several hours in the former chancellor’s “Kremlin deluxe” suite. Previous reports have suggested that Abramovich had lobbied Putin to end the invasion. The sanctions have frozen much of the oligarch’s fortune in the UK and complicated his efforts to sell Chelsea.
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Yesterday Britain froze the assets of more than 300 Russians, including 50 oligarchs and members of their families, after the passage of the Economic Crime Bill made it easier to impose sanctions. They include Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, whose LetterOne investment company owns the health food retailer Holland & Barrett. The new list also names those involved in the invasion, such as Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, and Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister.
“We are going further and faster than ever in hitting those closest to Putin — from major oligarchs, to his prime minister, and the propagandists who peddle his lies and disinformation,” Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, said.
It is unclear what arguments Schröder has deployed in his attempts to end the war, whether his endeavours have been tacitly endorsed or encouraged by President Zelensky, and whether they have borne any fruit.
Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor and former Schröder acolyte, has publicly distanced himself from Schröder’s machinations. Schröder was also reported to have met Vladimir Medinsky, the hardline former culture minister, who led the Russian delegation during the early rounds of negotiations with Ukraine.
Few figures in the West have a stronger line to Putin. Schröder was the architect of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines from Russia to Germany. He is also believed to have earned at least a seven-figure sum from his roles on the boards of Gazprom and Rosneft, two of Russia’s largest state-owned energy companies, and at the parent company of the Nord Stream project.
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In his sole public statement since the beginning of the attack he said it was Moscow’s responsibility to end it but also urged western leaders to tread softly with sanctions so as not to destroy the few remaining “bridges” between Russia and the rest of Europe.
