Gerhard Schroeder. File photoWASHINGTON, Apr 23 Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder spoke out against an embargo on Russian energy and said Russia would not stop gas supplies. «That won't happen,» Schroeder told the New York Times When asked whether Russia would stop deliveries, the ex-chancellor said that otherwise he would «resign», without specifying what posts he was talking about. Schroeder heads the board of directors of Rosneft and is the head of the committee of shareholders of Nord Stream AG. «In general, since the 1960s, cooperation with the Soviet Union, and then with Russia, has been permanent. They received money and supplied gas. Even in during the harshest times of the Cold War, there were no problems,» Schroeder said. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said earlier that an embargo on gas from Russia was unacceptable because it would not end Russia's special operation in Ukraine, but would have «significant consequences» for Germany and all Europe. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24th. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at the military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and, as of March 25, they have completed the main tasks of the first stage — they have significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
