putin, who is a friend of schroeder�*s. he was at birthday parties with him and putin was at schroeder�*s birthday parties and people now view him as toxic. there were suggestions this week that possibly schroeder could negotiate with putin but i think those bridges were burned when schroeder posted something on social media saying that he condemned the war but mistakes have been made on both sides, and didn't name putin by name and i think, for many germans, that was a bridge too far and many are saying schroeder needs to cut all ties with russia and possibly even be sanctioned, so pretty tough words all round. damien mcguinness in berlin, thank you very much. well, here, the uk foreign secretary has urged the russian start to escalate the conflict and said the uk is looking at what more it can do to support ukraine. prime minister boris johnson has said the west is tightening the economic ligature around putin's russia as the allies