TREE NEWS update: Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was invited to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s home in Moscow on October 7 to celebrate Putin’s 74th birthday, the Kremlin said via Telegram, adding that Putin learned from media reports that Schroeder was in the Russian capital and invited his old friend over. Photos released by the Russian side show the two men smiling and shaking hands firmly. Before the birthday gathering, Schroeder and his wife Kim So-yeon visited a Moscow branch of German retail group Globus’s Russian subsidiary and addressed its staff; Bild reported Schroeder has sat on that branch’s supervisory board since early September.
Germany’s ex-Chancellor Schroeder visits Putin’s home for 74th birthday
AI take
Schroeder's presence at Putin's birthday, framed by the Kremlin as a casual invitation after learning he was in Moscow, is less a diplomatic signal than a reminder that personal networks between Russian and German business and political elites persist despite the broader rupture. His supervisory board role at Globus's Russian subsidiary, disclosed in the same reporting, ties the visit to commercial interests still operating in Russia. The open question is whether such ties remain tolerated in Berlin or become a fresh political liability.
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