German ex-leader Schroeder loses privileges over Russia ties


              FILE -- Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Germany's former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder attend an economic forum in St.Petersburg, Russia, Thursday, June 21, 2012. The co-leader of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party says former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose ties to the Russian energy industry have left him increasingly isolated at home, should leave the party.
Saskia Esken, one of two co-leaders of Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats, said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio Monday that “Gerhard Schroeder has been acting for many years now as a businessman, and we should stop seeing him as an elder statesman, as a former chancellor.” (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky, pool,file)
            
              File--- File photo shows German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, right, welcoming Russia's President Vladimir Putin in Berlin, Germany, Thursday Sept. 8, 2005.  (AP Photo/Herbert Knosowski,file)