Gerhard Schroeder and his wife adopted Russian girl from President Putin’s hometown

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his wife Doris Schrцder-Kцpf adopted 3-year-old girl Victoria who had lived in orphanage in Russia.
Gerhard Schroeder has been married 4 times. His fourth wife Doris Schrцder-Kцpf is a reporter, she is 18 years younger than her husband. Their family had only one daughter –13-year-old Klara whose father was Doris’ previous husband, a TV reporter Sven Kuntse.

The Schroeders family took the girl from the orphanage in St. Petersburg several weeks ago, N-24 TV Channel reported.

The information on adopting the girl was kept in such a secrecy that even Schroeder’s bodyguards learned about this only shortly before the Chancellor’s plane was leaving Russia for Germany with his new daughter aboard.

The fact that the girl is from St. Petersburg is unlikely to be a coincidence. Thus is a native city of Russian President Vladimir Putin who is Schroeder’s close friend, Bild.de wrote.

The Putins family attended the 60th birthday anniversary of the Chancellor in April, 2004 in Hanover. May be, they had a talk about a child during the birthday celebration. It is a well-known fact that Gerhard Schroeder demonstrated has had concerns about the hard life of many Russian children.

Doris Schroeder-Kopf who is a successful writer for children, also provides assistance to the children in need. In particular, she donated money for constructing a hospital for children in Albanian capital Tirana. 

In September 2003, the chancellor’s wife started patronizing the action called  "First European Friendship Tour" which provides assistance to children and teenagers of St. Petersburg. May be, there the German “first lady” met little Victoria. 

Doris Schroeder-Kopf has deep affection for a family, and her husband borrowed this devotion to the family from her.

At one point, before Gerhard Schroeder was elected Chancellor in 1998, a reporter asked Doris Schroeder-Kopf if they were going to have children. She replied, “First, we have to go through hard time, and then we’ll see".

No doubt, it was Doris’ idea to adopt a child. However, it was probably easy for her to persuade Mr. Schroeder to do this as a family is main source of energy for German Chancellor.

Russian authorities were aware of Chancellor Schroeder’s intention to adopt a Russian girl, and the procedure was done in compliance with the regulations, in presence of Doris Schroeder-Kopf, said the representative of the Kremlin’s administration.

Gerhard Schroeder "had informed the Russian President in person about his intention to adopt a Russian girl”, said a source in the Russian government in an ITAR-TASS interview. He said that this is “private personal matter of the German Chancellor’s family”.