The Austrian far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) will not renew in 2022 the controversial agreement it reached five years ago with the United Russia party, the faction of Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, its leader announced on Thursday.
“I never understood the meaning of this agreement,” which was signed in December 2016 in Moscow, the current head of the FPÖ, former Interior Minister Herbert Kikl, told reporters.
In the midst of the new coronavirus pandemic, “we have no choice but to deal with anything” other than Austria’s current problems, added the far-right leader, who is currently fighting a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination. , which will be imposed from February.
The alliance between the FPÖ and United Russia was reached by Mr. Kikl’s predecessor, Heinz-Christian Strache, who withdrew from politics due to a high-profile corruption scandal that erupted in 2019.
The two-page text, which was valid for five years, was then signed on behalf of the Russian party by Sergei Zelezniak, a person who is being sanctioned by the West.
With this, the two parties pledged to “share information on international relations”.
Until then highly anti-Soviet, the FPÖ made a dramatic turn in 2008, favoring Russia in the lightning war with Georgia. In 2012, FPÖ elected officials visited Ramzan Kadyrov in Chechnya before the party approved the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.
The far-right Austrian party has always denied that it benefited financially from cooperating with United Russia, while other Austrian factions denounced what they called “Putin’s fifth phalanx in Europe”.
In 2018, the then Austrian Foreign Minister, Karin Kneisl, an FPÖ executive, danced with Vladimir Putin at his wedding, a fact that provoked strong reactions, mainly from Ukraine, as Austria declares neutrality.
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