JKX in 2005

Slightly old news but interesting in view of Thursday's TV programme. Let us not forget that it was due to the Hitler-Stalin Pact of 1939 that Ukraine holds what was formerly Romanian territory (and JKX has the exploration rights in the Black Sea). Ukraine now looks west while Germany is, or was under Schröder, looking east.



Gerhard's new job

The news last month that Gerhard Schröder would use his retirement to come to London to learn English never quite looked like the full story. Now we learn the former chancellor will also start a new career as chairman of a German-Russian gas consortium and will probably be paid €1m (£660,000) a year.

Of course, our own former prime minister John Major advised Carlyle, the very large and powerful US private-equity group, after leaving office but the greater sense of shock in Germany over Schröder's move is understandable.

Firstly, Schröder is stepping into his new job so soon after leaving office. Secondly, and more critically, he was a champion of strong German ties with Russia and his friend, Vladimir Putin.

It was due to his strong support that the new, and controversial, gas pipeline between Germany and Russia under the Baltic Sea will be built. Now he will be chairman of the consortium that will realise the multibillion-pound project and which belongs mainly to Gazprom, a gas giant dominated by the Russian state. Rightly or wrongly, Germans will see Putin's hand at work in securing Schröder's services.

It doesn't make the former German chancellor an employee of the Russian state but ordinary Germans may not bother to draw such distinctions. Schröder's move will inevitably further damage German voters' faith in their politicians' dealings with big business.