Former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, derided by many Germans for his friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Thursday lost his legal bid to keep a government-funded office after being stripped of it last year.
Schroeder, 79, had filed a lawsuit against a decision by the budget committee of the Bundestag lower house of parliament to withdraw his privileges after dismay at his refusal to distance himself from Putin following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
