The fact Gerhard Schröder, a former chancellor-turned-Kremlin-lobbyist, was invited to a German parliament committee hearing on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was a "disgrace" for NGO panelist Alexander Reitzenstein, German media reported. New US sanctions on the Russia-Germany gas pipeline were a "termination of the transatlantic partnership," Schröder told MPs. It was "absurd" that the US acted as "a regulator of European [energy] issues", Niels Annen, a German official said.
