How did it come to this? What was the role played by Gerhard Schröder as the SPD Chancellor and later gas lobbyist, with his extensive network of contacts in politics and industry? Why did CDU Chancellor Angela Merkel not pursue a more far-sighted course of action? Which social and political connections, which economic and strategic interests, caused Germany to come to rely on Putin, when even before his invasion of Ukraine he was waging war, suppressing opposition, curtailing people’s freedoms and abusing human rights? FAZ correspondents Reinhard Bingener and Markus Wehner reveal the ‘Moscow connection’ in German politics, and show how one of Germany’s worst foreign policy misjudgements since 1945 was made possible.

*Male friendships, personal dependencies and the failure of German politics – Putin’s successful ‘ - Operation Schröder’

*Hannover – Berlin – Moscow: a major investigation into Gerhard Schröder’s fateful network in politics and industry

*How shady honorary consuls, sinister contractors, ex-Stasi officers and naïve politicians pursuing a policy of détente led Germany to become dependent upon the Kremlin

*For readers of Catherine Belton’s ‘Putin’s Network’