Gerhard Schröder lost his lawsuit against the Bild newspaper over an interview with Navalny, who called him “Putin’s errand boy”

The court rejected the lawsuit filed by former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder against the German tabloid Bild. The publication itself reports this.

The politician went to court after the newspaper published an interview with Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in October 2020. In it, he called Schröder “Putin’s errand boy who protects murderers.”

Navalny also admitted that the former chancellor receives “secret payments” from the Russian authorities. “This is my personal opinion as a lawyer who has been investigating Rosneft and Gazprom for several years. I don’t have a document that says in black and white: “Here, Mr. Schroeder, this is your briefcase full of money.” But I have no doubt that Schroeder receives hidden payments,” he said in that material.

Schröder did not sue Navalny himself, but demanded that Bild not disseminate “unfounded allegations.” He also threatened lawsuits against other publications that would reprint fragments of the interview.

As Bild notes, the claim was rejected by the Hamburg Regional Court on March 8. Now that the deadline for filing an appeal has passed, the decision has entered into legal force, and Schroeder will have to bear the costs of a long-term legal dispute.

• Gerhard Schröder served as Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. After his resignation, he headed the board of directors of the company operating the Nord Stream project. From September 2017 to May 2022, Schroeder was chairman of the board of directors of Rosneft. Western media have repeatedly called him a close friend of Vladimir Putin.