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Schroeder Slammed Over Russian Pipeline Job

Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder landed a job Friday as board chairman for a Russian-German gas pipeline that he championed while in office, a post that deepens his already close relationship with the Russian government and President Vladimir Putin. At a groundbreaking ceremony about 250 miles north of Moscow, Alexei Miller, the chief executive of Gazprom, the Russian energy giant that holds a majority stake in the pipeline partnership, said the Schroeder-led board would be involved in "reaching all strategic decisions on all areas of the company`s activity."

Opposition politicians denounced the appointment as a conflict of interest. "It stinks," said Reinhard Buetikofer, co-chairman of Germany`s Greens, who were a coalition partner in Schroeder`s Social Democrat-led government

Schroeder and the German-speaking Putin built a strong political and personal alliance during the chancellor`s seven-year tenure, putting relations between Berlin and Moscow on the friendliest terms since Nazi Germany fought the Soviet Union on the battlefields of World War II. They have frequently conferred in person, in 2004, Schroeder and his wife adopted a 3-year-old Russian girl.