Poll: Majority of Germans find former chancellor Schröder's Putin visit "inappropriate"

A majority of people in Germany disapprove of former chancellor Gerhard Schröder's visit to Russian leader Vladimir Putin to mark his birthday.

Source: European Pravda, citing a YouGov survey conducted for dpa

Details: The survey found that 56% of respondents said it was inappropriate for a former chancellor to accept the invitation. A quarter considered the visit appropriate, while one-fifth said they were undecided or gave no answer.

The representative survey of 1,219 people across Germany was conducted on Friday.

Ukraine's ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, criticised the meeting in comments released on Saturday.

"It is disgusting that a former chancellor embraces the war criminal so warmly," Makeiev said.

Background:

• The Kremlin previously announced that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had celebrated his 74th birthday in the company of Schröder.
• Schröder was in Moscow on 7 October to visit a Globus hypermarket in Russia following his appointment to the supervisory board of Hyperglobus.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz sharply criticised Schröder for visiting Russian leader Vladimir Putin to celebrate Putin's birthday.

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