Gerhard Schröder defied critics on Wednesday night, insisting that joining the board of Russian energy giant Rosneft was entirely up to him.

"I will do this. This is about my life and I decide – not the German press," he said in his usual candid manner. He was speaking at an election campaign event for the Social Democrats (SPD) in the northern town of Rotenburg on the Wümme. He added that he could not see a problem and that "I'm not going to allow anyone to make it into one."Schröder, who was German chancellor from 1998 to 2005, was harshly criticized for his decision by the media, but also – among others - by his successor Angela Merkel as well as Martin Schulz from his own SPD party.  Rosneft has been subject to EU sanctions due to Russia's unlawful annexation of Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula.  Schröder, however, stressed that getting involved with the world's biggest oil company was in Germany's interest. "I stand by what I've said before – that it's not wise to isolate our big neighbor Russia both politically and economically," he said adding that his critics were apparently interested in a new Cold War with Russia.  He said he was "fed up" with the criticism of Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, saying that compared to US President Donald Trump, Putin was "highly rational" and that "demonizing Russia" would get us nowhere.He emphasized that Rosneft was an international company and not "the extended arm of the Russian government." Russia owns just over 50 percent of Rosneft.  The former German chancellor is known for his connection to Russia – he once dubbed Russian President Vladimir Putin a "flawless Democrat."  After he lost to Merkel in the 2005 election, he joined the Nordstream pipeline consortium, which is controlled by Russia's Gazprom. He has since switched to join an extension of the original pipeline, known as Nordstream 2. Schröder is due to be formally elected to Rosneft's supervisory board on September 29. It is not clear yet whether he will lead the board or just become a member.

Ukraine has banned all Russian planes from using its airspace and exports of Russian gas to Ukraine have been halted by state-controlled giant Gazprom.  The decision was announced by Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk at a televised government meeting.  Gazprom said it had halted gas deliveries to Ukraine because it had used up all the gas it had paid for.  But Ukraine said it had stopped buying from Gazprom because it could get cheaper gas from Europe.  The airspace ban applies to military planes as well as civil airliners.  "The Ukrainian government has decided to ban all transit flights for all Russian airlines in Ukraine's airspace," said Mr Yatsenyuk.  "The government is instructing [aviation authority] Ukraerorukh, in line with the norms of international law, to inform the Russian Federation that Russian airlines and Russian aircraft do not have the right to use Ukraine's airspace any longer." Following previous clashes over gas supplies, the two countries had agreed that Ukraine would pay for its gas in advance.  But Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller said on Wednesday that Ukraine had already used up all the gas it had paid for. In a statement, Mr Miller said that "deliveries have been stopped until the receipt of new payments from the Ukrainian company. "The refusal to buy Russian gas will create serious risks for the reliable transit of gas to Europe through Ukraine and for the supply of gas to Ukrainian consumers during the upcoming winter," he added.

The International Monetary Fund has ruled out striking a “quick and dirty” deal with Greece, after European leaders failed to reach an agreement over the country's future at a summit in Riga on Friday.  As Greece’s senior creditor, there have been fears the IMF is ready to pull the plug on another financial aid package unless a “comprehensive” agreement is reached with Athens soon.

Fund chief Christine Lagarde dismissed the prospect of a partial release of bail-out cash that would keep Greece solvent up until the autumn.   “It has to be a comprehensive approach, not a quick and dirty job,” Ms Lagarde told an audience in Rio. “I know there is a lot of work to be done. Parties are now working, receiving proposals, working in cooperation and we will continue to do so as fast as we can.”  Her comments came after Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras met with his French and German counterparts on the sidelines of a European leaders summit in Riga.  EU did do a lot of work and meetings to keep greece in but giving money to a hole to fill it is a big mistake. Greece take money to pay for the debt which is own to the same bank and EU did play enough this bank role...Greece did a lot of work to survive but its state and government has no money but most of the Greeks have their own money taken from their banks which also must be filled by the EU.. If this game play longer than greece will eat the EU states too and still will need more money because euro it is still to strong and it did eat both greece and EU and maybe the rest of the world. Euro was built to destroy not build and unite and improve the EU life and structure. Euro must be half of the dollar to start changing things for good and that may happen after ECB print 10 trillions more....so ECB must continue printing,use Siberia forest,wood...In Riga today the EU gave the Ukraine a loan of 1.5 Billion Euros. The Ukraine wants to know a timeline of when It can expect to join the EU.  There were also draft discussions on the widening of the " Union " to include the other remaining entry candidates of eastern Europe to the EU including Georgia and Moldova.