Die Moskau-Connection

Die Moskau-Connection. Das Schröder-Netzwerk und Deutschlands Weg in die Abhängigkeit (The Moscow Connection. The Schröder Network and Germany's Path to Dependency) is a political non-fiction book in German. It was written by the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung journalists Reinhard Bingener and Markus Wehner. It was published in May 2023 and deals with the political and economic network around former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder - from 1998 to 2005 - of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). It also deals with how Schröder and his network cooperated with Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to the authors, this cooperation was one of the reasons why Germany gave signals of weakness towards Russia. This weakness and division in Europe encouraged Putin to continue with his aggressive policy – up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The book was reviewed and quoted in many media and mostly received positively. It made it onto Der Spiegel bestseller list. The two authors presented it on 14 March 2023 in Hanover at the bookshop Leuenhagen & Paris. At the event, Wehner said in his lecture: "Tens of thousands of deaths in Ukraine are also due to this Russia policy".