The former SPD politician and Russian Honorary Consul Heino Wiese announced his resignation in an interview with the FAZ on Thursday morning, "because I can no longer justify Russia's policy as of today".
Wiese said he was "perplexed" by the invasion of Russia.
The former member of the Bundestag and long-time state manager of the SPD in Lower Saxony in the time of Gerhard Schröder is considered one of Moscow's most important lobbyists in Germany.
Wiese is not only Russia's Honorary Consul in Hanover, but was also elected President of the Corps Consulaire Deutschland (CCD), the association of honorary and career consuls in the country, a few months ago.
He will also resign from this office, Wiese told the FAZ
Reinhard Bingener
Political correspondent for Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Bremen based in Hanover.
Follow I follow
Heino Wiese is also the owner of a consulting firm that is heavily active in Russia, but also in Azerbaijan and Turkey.
His relationship with Gerhard Schröder is considered close.
Wiese also attended a meeting between former Chancellor and SPD leader Gerhard Schröder and Johann Saathoff in Hanover on January 5, 2022.
Saathoff is Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior and was previously the Federal Government Commissioner for Intersocietal Cooperation with Russia.
The SPD politician also comes from Lower Saxony.
Matthias Platzeck (SPD), the former Prime Minister of Brandenburg, was also present at the meeting.
According to Wiese, he also organized high-ranking contacts in Russia when the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Stephan Weil (SPD), traveled there.
Wiese and Weil have known each other for several decades from the Hanoverian SPD.
After the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung" reported on Wiese's role in January, the Honorary Consuls called for Wiese to resign as CCD President.
Among other things, Wiese had told the FAS that he found the Russian foreign minister "really good, because he doesn't talk, he does things." Wiese had rejected these demands and was able to count on the support of a number of other honorary consuls from Hanover in particular.