Schroeder withdraws from the board of directors of the Russian oil group "Rosneft".
The Russian oil giant "Rosneft" announced Friday that the former German chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and has been criticized for the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, will withdraw from the group's board of directors.
According to Rosneft, Schroeder told the company that he would not be able to extend his duties as chairman of the board of directors of the leading Russian oil company.
This announcement comes a day after Berlin took decisions targeting the former Social Democratic leader who was chancellor of Germany between 1998 and 2005 and the European Parliament called in a non-binding resolution to impose sanctions on him.
The Bundestag, the German parliament, decided Thursday to strip Schroeder of official privileges he enjoys, including running his office.
MEPs voted by a large majority in favor of a non-binding resolution demanding Schroeder resign from his positions in Russian companies.
The resolution states that "European members of the boards of major Russian companies and politicians who continue to receive Russian money" should be added to the EU's sanctions list.
Gerhard Schroeder remains Chairman of the Shareholders Committee of Nord Stream AG, the consortium operating the Nord Stream gas pipeline between Russia and Germany.
In addition to his current positions, he is due to join the supervisory board of Russia's giant Gazprom in June.
The former chancellor was stripped of medals awarded by several cities and targeted by calls for his ouster from the Social Democratic Party.
He had announced in April that he did not intend to resign unless Moscow halted gas shipments to Germany, a scenario he said he did not believe could happen.
Rosneft announced in its statement that another member of its board, Matthias Varnig, had also resigned.
Varnig is the German CEO of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline operator.
He had begun his career in government circles in communist East Germany.
According to German media, he was a senior official in the East German "Stassi" Ministry of State Security in the espionage department.
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