LISBON, Portugal — While European governments were struggling to agree on the names of a handful of Russians they could blacklist in response to the latest mayhem in Ukraine, one of the continent's preeminent elder statesmen was out partying with his old buddy Vladimir Putin.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
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Former Germany's chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (3rd L) stands at the entrance to the Yuspovsky Palace in Russia's second city of St. Petersburg, late on April 28, 2014, while waiting for the arrival of Russia's President Vladimir Putin at a North Stream reception on the occasion of Schroeder's 70th birthday. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said yesterday that there was no sign of an imminent invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces, despite a massive deployment along the border of the two countries. His comments came as both the United States and the European Union imposed new sanctions against Russia for failing to defuse the situation in Ukraine, the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War. AFP PHOTO / STR
