US congressman: Schroeder a “prostitute”

12 June 2007

Washington (dpa) – Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s close business ties to Russia amount to “political prostitution” that would even offend people who sell their bodies for money, a top US congressman said on Tuesday.

Tom Lantos, a Holocaust survivor who chairs the House of Representatives committee on foreign affairs, attacked both Shroeder and former French president Jacques Chirac for failing to support the United States in its 2003 war in Iraq.

Speaking at the dedication ceremony for a victims of communism memorial in Washington, Lantos said he would like to call Schroeder “a political prostitute, now that he’s taking big cheques from (Russian President Vladimir) Putin. But the sex workers in my district objected.”

Soon after leaving office, Schroeder became chairman of the North European Gas Pipeline, which is 51-per-cent owned by Russian state natural gas company Gazprom

DPA

Subject: German news