"Oh my God, 55% of Austria’s gas continues to come from Russia,” Martin Selmayr lamented in Vienna. Paying for continued Russian supplies was tantamount to helping finance its war against Ukraine, and no one protested, he added.
"Oh my God, 55% of Austria’s gas continues to come from Russia,” Martin Selmayr lamented in Vienna. Paying for continued Russian supplies was tantamount to helping finance its war against Ukraine, and no one protested, he added.
I am personally also torn up by this but we have long-standing agreements with Russian gas which we can’t exactly just annul or cut because of a war we are technically not involved with since we are neutral. I also know it might not seem that way, especially because a lot of politicians in Austria have quite stupidly taken side, down the line we are still neutral and not supposed to decide based on other relations.
I want Austria to be neutral, but with no better alternative (also price-wise) we can’t just not trade with them since we are neutral.
Edit: Technically the neutrality only accounts to military alliances: https://www.parlament.gv.at/aktuelles/news/in-einfacher-sprache/archiv/j2022/064neutralitaet#:~:text=Verfassungsgesetz 1955,wird keinen militärischen Bündnissen beitreten. For those who are downvoting this: the downvote button isn’t for disagreeing, I am not agreeing with how my country managed this at all either; Still, our neutrality is the most compelling argument I’ve heard against going against russia. Though I’d love if the politicians did something about raiffeisen and all the other blood benefactors as well.
Of course you can choose to not trade with Russia if you’re neutral.
In these discussion all I hear is $$$
It’s not the neutral kind of neutrality, it’s the swiss “fan the flames of bloodshed by profiting from the whole thing as much as possible” kind of neutrality.
I think it’s the “I can’t let you kill this guy in front of me, so, to remain neutral in that matter, I will turn around, put my fingers into my ears and if the other one manages to - out of accident - stumble into your knife a couple of times, it’s just something I couldn’t help about.” kind of neutrality the Austrians are talking about.
Yep, the swiss stayed neutral because of nazi blood money…sounds like Austria is doing the same for russian blood oil.
My opinion of your country has become pretty negative because of how it has responded to Russia’s barbaric land grab. You can put whatever lipstick you want on it, but it’s shameful for you to stand with people committing genocide just to make some money.
The bad apples are quite visible sadly. Tons of Austrian companies have pulled out of Russia, tons of Austrians companies have been producing in Ukraine for years and obviously support Ukraine. But a few big conglomerates like Raiffeisen keep giving us a bad name because they dont want to lose money.
The gas thing is yet another blunder by the OMV (our gas+oil company) and the conservative party who signed a contract with Russia. We absolutely should be buying our gas elsewhere, but that’s not realistic as long as we have no suppliers. The government dont want Austrians to freeze in the winter. Other EU countries have done exactly zero to help us out in that regard btw. Moldova is switching from Russian gas to Romanian gas currently because Romania heavily helps them.
And the government is incompetent as fuck and still partly influenced by friends of Russia.
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I’m sure I must be misinterpreting your comment because it reads to me as if you think opposing Russian’s invasion is wrong and the result of being gullible…
Austria isn’t neutral. Austria is de facto a russian asset in Europe. The Austrian intelligence helped with the ties to have the wirecard ceo flee to Russia, after his fraud became apparent. In intelligence circles nothing sensitive is shared with Austria anymore, as it is certain to be passed to the Russians. In the Ibiza video high ranking Austrian fascist politicians, of a government party proved more than willing to sell the country out to Russia in exchange for russian influence on austrian media. There is many ties between Austrian economic and political elites and Russia. In particular thanks to the strength of the fascist and the reactionary party. Also the fascist party is currently leading in the polls with 28%. So many Austrians want Austria to do Putins bidding and harm the EU and international peace.
the Kremlin playbook 2 illustrates the situation quite well.
Wrong, FPÖ wasnt in government when the video was made and isnt in government now either.
And there is no proof that “Austrian intelligence helped the Wirecard CEO flee to Russia”. Also Marsalek wasnt CEO. The guy who supposedly helped him escape is an ex intelligence member who is well known for his controversial views and role in scandals.
But you’re definitely right about the fascist party’s ties to Russia and the strength of the economic elite.
Neutral, aka doing nothing while watching other people suffer and die.
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Neutrality amounts to a ball in equilibrium on a rope, only because the world is full of belligerents, wannabe strongmen and plain stupid morons doing egoistic stuff all the time forcing more tempered people to take sides