Russia's invasion of Ukraine had the first personnel consequences in Hanover, where pro-Moscow positions have been represented in the SPD for years.

In the Lower Saxony state capital, the former SPD politician Heino Wiese told the FAZ that he was resigning as Russian honorary consul and would also resign as President of the Consular Corps (CCD) in Germany.

"Because as of today I can no longer justify Russia's policy," said Wiese in justification and was "at a loss" in view of Russia's attack on Ukraine.

Reinhard Bingener

Political correspondent for Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Bremen based in Hanover.

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The resignation is important because Wiese is not only seen as representing Moscow's interests in Germany, but also has close ties to former Chancellor and former SPD leader Gerhard Schröder.

He also spoke up on Thursday, but did not go as far as Wiese.

Schröder called for an end to the war on the Linkedin platform and wrote: "That is the responsibility of the Russian government." Unlike Wiese, Schröder, who is involved in various positions as a lobbyist for the Russian energy industry, but did not publicly cut his ties to Moscow.

Wiese, whose collaborator Lars Klingbeil, the current SPD federal chairman, once was, played a central role in these connections.

On January 5, 2022, Wiese attended a meeting between Schröder and Johann Saathoff in Hanover.

The SPD politician Saathoff, also from Lower Saxony, is Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior and was previously the Federal Government Commissioner for Intersocietal Cooperation with Russia.

Matthias Platzeck, former Prime Minister of Brandenburg and also from the SPD, was also present at the meeting.

So a significant section of the Moscow connection within the SPD sat together at the table.

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As the owner of a consulting agency, Heino Wiese initiated business in Russia and has always spoken very kindly about the Putin regime.

At the beginning of January, Wiese was quoted in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung” as saying that he found the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov “totally good, because he doesn’t talk, he does things”.

The statement led to demands for Wiese's resignation as CCD President, although he had only been elected to this office at the end of 2021 - incidentally on the premises of the Lower Saxony State Representation in Berlin.

However, Wiese fended off the demands for his resignation with the help of friendly honorary consuls, mainly from Hanover, some of whom in turn belong to Schröder's extended network.

The matter is also sensitive for the SPD in Lower Saxony, because Wiese was managing director of the state association for many years in the Schröder era and is still wired among experienced social democrats to this day.

The FAS reported to Wiese that before Prime Minister Stephan Weil, whom he had known for decades from the SPD in Hanover, went to Russia, he arranged appointments with high-ranking interlocutors - and Weil traveled to Moscow noticeably often during his tenure.

And after the poisoning of Russian opposition politician Alexej Navalny, the prime minister published a statement in September 2020 entitled “Sanctions are dead ends”, garnished with the following quote from SPD veteran Egon Bahr: “International politics is never about democracy and human rights.”