Free Democrats and Greens Unite In Germany

Well, not in any political sense, but they did share the same opinion that former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has leapt openly into a giant conflict of interest by taking a position as Chairman of a joint Russian-German oil pipeline initiative that he and Putin signed off on less than two weeks before he lost his job as Chancellor in the German elections.

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."

In September, Schroeder and Putin signed an agreement on behalf of their countries to build the $4.7 billion pipeline. Ten days later the German leader and his party lost an election, leading to his resignation last month. He resigned his seat in Parliament as well, and the German political world has been speculating about his future ever since.

[...]

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, the Associated Press reported.

Rainer Bruederle, a leading member of Germany's pro-business Free Democrats party, said that if Schroeder's responsibilities were more than ceremonial, the deal could call into question whether he can distinguish between public and private affairs.

What amazes me is how this man can continue to be help up by the anti-war crowd as the epitome of moral authority while the American president remains Chimpy McBushitler.

More interesting is how this pipeline deal got its start.

The chief executive of the pipeline consortium is Matthias Warnig, a German who heads Dresdner Bank's arm in Russia and is a longtime friend of Putin's. The Wall Street Journal reported this year that Warnig was an officer in the Stasi, the East German secret police, and met Putin during the late 1980s when the Russian president was based in East Germany as a Soviet KGB officer.

Did I mention moral authority?