The political explosiveness of the trip from Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) to Russian President Vladimir Putin is enormous given the war of aggression against Ukraine. The diplomatic tightrope walk should also serve to explain to Putin that the war is already “morally lost”, as Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said Monday. Meanwhile, criticism of the trip is getting louder.
In the run-up to the rather controversial politicians’ meeting, there is little evidence of a disarmament of the words. It makes a difference “when you tell someone face to face what reality really is,” the foreign minister explained ahead of the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council of Ministers in Luxembourg.
“Clear position on aggressive war”
Accordingly, during his visit, Nehammer should address the fact that Putin “de facto morally lost the war,” Schallenberg said. As the first head of state of an EU country, Nehammer will travel to Moscow on Monday to meet Putin in person. Austria was “militarily neutral” but had “a clear stance on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” the chancellor said on Sunday.
Schallenberg’s statement now shows that Nehammer must also show a clear edge in the conflict against Putin. How the talks will actually go is still completely open. Apparently there is hope to mediate decisively in the conflict.
Ernst-Dziedzic: ‘Can’t approve visit’
Meanwhile, the criticism of the trip continues. “I cannot approve a visit to Putin,” Greens MP Ewa Ernst-Dziedzic said via Twitter. Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens) wasn’t thrilled with the meeting either, but it would be “worth a try,” Kogler said.
Mangott: Putin has power over images
In the ORF “ZiB 2” on Sunday evening, Russia expert Gerhard Mangott from the University of Innsbruck harshly criticized Nehammer’s visit to Moscow: “I don’t think this visit is a wise decision.” No one in the EU has waited for a bridge builder, Eastern Europeans have been sharply critical of this move, Mangott said.
Russian President Putin has control over the images from this visit and will know how to use them, he warned. Nehammer will provide Putin with pictures that read: “I am not isolated, there are countries in the West that are working with us.”
NEOS concerned about ‘propaganda carts’
Nehammer’s visit to the Russian president should not lead to Austria leaving the common European path, NEOS chairman Beate Meinl-Reisinger said in a broadcast on Sunday evening. “In general, there is concern that the meeting will ultimately benefit Putin more than Ukraine. After all, it happened that Austrian politicians made an effort for Russian propaganda carts,” she explained.
Source: Krone
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