Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, third left, and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, right, attend an inauguration ceremony of Vladimir Putin as Russia's President. Photos / AP
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, third left, and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, right, attend an inauguration ceremony of Vladimir Putin as Russia's President. Photos / AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin shook hands with just three people in the audience after he took the oath of office.
They were the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill; Putin's longtime Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev; and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
It was a remarkable and revealing moment.
At Russia's biggest political event of the year, just two days before the country celebrates the Soviet World War II victory over the Nazis, a front-row spot of the utmost honour was granted to a former German leader.
Schroeder's placement, captured repeatedly by state TV cameras and broadcast on the evening news, showed the depth of the ties between Putin and his perhaps most important foreign friend.
It served as a reminder that the former East Germany-based KGB officer who now rules Russia continues to look to Berlin as his key bridge to Europe. And it looked to be an effort to show Russians - and the West - that the Kremlin still has allies abroad despite sanctions and criticism.
"This was a signal that those who take a positive position in relation to the Kremlin will be supported by it," said Alexey Chesnakov, a former Kremlin adviser turned pro-Putin commentator.
Schroeder took office in 1998, just over a year before Putin, and soon bonded with him at international summits, where the Russian President was often the only other world leader who also spoke German.
Vladimir Putin enters to take the oath during his inauguration ceremony.
After losing his re-election bid in 2005, Schroeder shrugged off criticism to go to work for Nord Stream, the gas pipeline project linking Russia to Germany. Schroeder doubled down and became chairman of Russia's biggest oil producer, Rosneft.
Among other things, Schroeder has been lobbying for Nord Stream 2, a new pipeline that critics say will boost Moscow's ability to use its energy supply for political leverage in Europe.
Putin has long been intent on building closer ties to Germany, and analysts say he was shocked when Chancellor Angela Merkel pushed for European Union sanctions against Russia amid the Ukraine crisis in 2014.
Another close Putin friend from Germany stood behind Schroeder at the inauguration: banker Matthias Warnig, a former East German secret police agent who, like Putin, worked in Dresden in the twilight of the Cold War.
Both men also attended Putin's 2012 inauguration, but video footage of the event shows that Schroeder didn't have a prime front-row spot next to the patriarch.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a service held by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Krill in the Annunciation Cathedral after the inauguration ceremony in the Kremlin.
The Germans' placement provoked a torrent of criticism.
In Russia, opposition leader Alexei Navalny said it showed the meaninglessness of the Kremlin's "talk of 'greatness and independence from the West'." In Berlin, the conservative Welt newspaper said Schroeder's "depressing" appearance showed he had left "his moral compass in the Kremlin cloakroom".
Schroeder's visit came as Western governments, including Germany's, have been criticising Russia over the arrest of more than 1600 protesters who participated in anti-Putin rallies.
Schroeder's office didn't respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Merkel, who has taken a tougher line on Russia but has allowed the Nord Stream 2 project to proceed, declined to comment on Schroeder's appearance.
A German official close to Merkel, however, wrote in a text message: "I'm quite sure that this is not the path that Merkel will take after her tenure."
