Having It Both Ways
Chancellor Karl Nehammer met with Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday, two days a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv
Servus!
Following Ukraine’s recapture of the areas around Kyiv and Chernihiv in the north, exposing the extent of Russian war crimes, Russian forces have refocused their efforts on eastern Ukraine. Russia struck a train station in Kramatorsk on Friday, murdering more than 50 civilians; on Sunday, Russian forces hit residential buildings in Sievierodonetsk and laid waste to the airport in Dnipro. Vladimir Putin has reorganized his battle forces in Ukraine, with general Aleksandr Dvornikov now leading operations. The White House anticipates Dvornikov’s appointment will beget more civilian casualties. Over 4.5 million Ukrainians have now been displaced by the conflict.
Last week, chancellor Karl Nehammer travelled by train to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking with him behind closed doors for around 45 minutes. At a joint press conference thereafter, Nehammer spoke in favor of further sanctions against Russia while ruling out a gas embargo which he said would have negative economic and social consequences for Europe. Nehammer also offered additional non-lethal aid to Ukraine in line with its military neutrality including 20 rescue vehicles and 10 fire trucks. During his Ukraine trip, Nehammer also travelled to Bucha and met with Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Prior to Nehammer’s visit, Austria’s foreign ministry had taken the unusual step of expelling four Russian diplomats from the country. The diplomats—three in the employ of the Russian embassy in Vienna, one who worked at the consulate in Salzburg—stood accused of engaging in activities contrary to the terms of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. This is a labored way of saying that Austria thought the diplomats were spies. Austria has a habit of turning a blind eye to such things, but on this occasion, the diplomats were given until Tuesday to pack their bags and leave Austria.
For those interested in supporting the effort to help Ukrainians displaced by war, the following Austrian or Austrian-backed organizations are accepting donations:
Nehammer’s Kyiv visit and the expulsion of four Russian diplomats could have been taken as a sign of Austria leaning into a distinction between military and political neutrality were it for the events that followed. On Sunday night, the German tabloid Bild broke the news that Nehammer was set to travel to Moscow for a meeting with Putin at a private residence in the Moscow region. Zelenskyy was said to have been looped in on Nehammer’s plans, while foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg claimed the visit’s purpose was to look Putin in the eye and tell him that he has lost the moral war.
Nehammer’s Moscow visit, however, evidently undermines the West’s attempts to isolate and undermine Putin. European diplomats were said to be unimpressed with Nehammer, fearing he was set to hand Putin a PR victory and free material to use in state propaganda. One Ukrainian diplomatic source told Bild: “What hubris on the part of the Austrian chancellor to think that there's any point to such a trip when Putin has shown himself to be a brutal war criminal.” Another EU source told the paper that the trip looked like “a PR show on Nehammer’s part,” especially considering his political problems at home.
Austria wants to have it both ways. It wants to take Ukraine’s side in principle while being neutral in practice. It supports sanctions on Russia but opposes a smorgasbord of very specific measures that would weaken its war machine including an oil and gas embargo. It backs sanctions on Russian businesses and oligarchs in Europe while opposing moves that would undermine Austrian business interests in Russia. Austria foreign policy is bound by these self-undermining contradictions. In Nehammer and Schallenberg’s hands, neutrality is not an asset but a straitjacket.
Bis bald!
Thank you for subscribing to the Vienna Briefing. If you know someone who might be interested in reading this newsletter, consider sharing it with them today.
Politician Attacked
Sigi Maurer, head of the Greens’ parliamentary party, was attacked by a COVID-skeptic at a bar in Vienna on Thursday night. The assailant tried to throw a glass in Maurer’s face. She escaped injured and the attacker was subsequently arrested.
Roma Remembered
The Greens have lent their support to a new memorial for Roma and Sinti victims of the Holocaust. The party’s spokesperson on cultural issues Eva Blimlinger favors building the memorial on the site of the former general hospital in Vienna.
Asylum Applications Up
Almost 40,000 people applied for asylum in Austria in 2021: an 170 percent increase on 2020. 16,300 of the 39,930 applicants were Syrian, 8,700 came from Afghanistan and 1,700 from Morocco. 78 percent of Syrians had their asylum applications approved.