File Photo: Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Germany's former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder Monday evening, an AFP correspondent witnessed, with the two old friends exchanging hugs in Saint Petersburg amid Moscow's worst standoff with the West since the Cold War.
Putin arrived in his luxury government car at the historic Yusupov palace, an official residence in Saint Petersburg around 11 p.m. on Monday, as Schroeder stood waiting to meet the Russian president.
The two smiled and hugged before heading indoors to join other guests for a closed-door event. Russian press reported that their meeting was linked to Schroeder's 70th birthday on April 7.
Schroeder, who served as chancellor between 1998 and 2005 and is a member of Germany's Social Democratic Party, is now the head of the shareholders' committee in Nord Stream AG, which controls the Nord Stream pipeline that carries Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic sea.
He was nominated to the post by Russia's gas giant Gazprom, which holds the majority stake in the pipeline project that was launched in 2005 and began transporting gas in 2011.
Schroeder is known to be a supporter of Putin, even while Russia faces isolation over the Ukraine crisis.
Russia's relations with European countries, including Germany, have soured in recent months over Moscow's actions in Ukraine and its blitz annexation of the Crimean peninsula last month.
The European Union and the United States on Monday introduced the latest wave of sanctions, with the EU saying it had added 15 more people to its blacklist accused of fomenting chaos in Ukraine.
Schroeder is often accused of being a Putin apologist and has been widely criticised for statements in Putin's defence.
He has spoken out against imposing EU sanctions on Russia.
In March he compared Moscow's annexation of Crimea to NATO's intervention in Kosovo in 1999, a parallel that was rejected by Chancellor Angela Merkel as "shameful".
Putin arrived in his luxury government car at the historic Yusupov palace, an official residence in Saint Petersburg around 11 p.m. on Monday, as Schroeder stood waiting to meet the Russian president.
The two smiled and hugged before heading indoors to join other guests for a closed-door event. Russian press reported that their meeting was linked to Schroeder's 70th birthday on April 7.
Schroeder, who served as chancellor between 1998 and 2005 and is a member of Germany's Social Democratic Party, is now the head of the shareholders' committee in Nord Stream AG, which controls the Nord Stream pipeline that carries Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic sea.
He was nominated to the post by Russia's gas giant Gazprom, which holds the majority stake in the pipeline project that was launched in 2005 and began transporting gas in 2011.
Schroeder is known to be a supporter of Putin, even while Russia faces isolation over the Ukraine crisis.
Russia's relations with European countries, including Germany, have soured in recent months over Moscow's actions in Ukraine and its blitz annexation of the Crimean peninsula last month.
The European Union and the United States on Monday introduced the latest wave of sanctions, with the EU saying it had added 15 more people to its blacklist accused of fomenting chaos in Ukraine.
Schroeder is often accused of being a Putin apologist and has been widely criticised for statements in Putin's defence.
He has spoken out against imposing EU sanctions on Russia.
In March he compared Moscow's annexation of Crimea to NATO's intervention in Kosovo in 1999, a parallel that was rejected by Chancellor Angela Merkel as "shameful".
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