Now, Schroeder has resigned from the board of directors of Moscow based oil company Rosneft.

The european parliament earlier called for him to face sanctions if he didn't quit.

Schroeder is a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he was previously expected to take a top job at Russian gas giant Gazprom, which is now looking less likely D.

W political correspondent Benjamin Alvarez group is on that story for us.

Ben, the former German Chancellor has long been criticized here in Germany and abroad for his close links to Russia.

Why is he making this decision?

Now?

Unfortunately, it's not possible to look into read the mind of the former Chancellor, but I think there are two reasons for that.

On one side, you mentioned that the possibility of being on a european union sanctions list is the european parliament passed a decree asking also to governments further push and sanctioned people who are close to Russian companies.

On the other side, of course, yesterday's decision by a Bundestag committee, a committee of the German Parliament that decided that they will strip the former Chancellor of some of his privileges that he still has.

Although he will still receive a pension and still have the security detail, He will not longer have the office and in that announcement that the committee made, they did not mention the war in Ukraine because they fear that they might have legal challenges there.

And the team around you already said that they are analyzing this because there is of course the moral aspect, but there's also the legal aspect and it was not mentioned.

They said that he's not following the duties of a farmer Chancellor.

And there's of course the question, what are the duties of a former Chancellor though, this is a decision that was taken.

Now, I think due to these two factors, tell us a bit about the role that she played in Germany's Russia policy as Chancellor and and how it has changed since he left office.

It was always really close when he was Chancellor, he left the Chancellor in 2000 and five.

Quickly afterwards he started working for these companies that were mentioned already for the energy sector.

He lobbied for them to see that there is this dependency between Germany and Russia when it comes to North Stream one, North Stream two and it's far more than just a business relationship that he has with the Russian president, He considered Vladimir, he considers Vladimir Putin a friend and many have been wondering why he did not take a stand, not only in 2014, when we have the situation in Crimea and Russia but now with Russia's war, Russia's invasion in Ukraine.

He has been strongly criticized also within the party within the social democrat party so closely to Russia.

This is a decision that was taken now, and let's see if there will be any further consequences for the former chancellor.

Ben Thank you.

D.

W.

Political correspondent Benjamin Alvarez Gruber.