Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accuses Austria of siding with the West and giving up neutrality. Schallenberg’s spokeswoman hit back hard and brought up a tip against the FPÖ.
A fierce exchange of blows broke out between Moscow and Vienna. The trigger was an interview given by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alexander Schallenberg, to the German newspaper “Die Welt”. hostile policies, gave up its hitherto independent role in foreign policy,” she was quoted as saying by the Russian TASS news agency.
“I’ve never been politically neutral”
Vienna’s tit for tat came promptly.
Claudia Türtscher, spokeswoman for Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, firmly rejected the Russian account and also singled out the FPÖ. “It seems that Zakharova has the same misunderstanding about Austrian neutrality as a faction in the Austrian National Council,” she told “Presse”. “We have never been and never are politically neutral when it comes to respecting international law. We are by no means neutral on violence and, of course, we will never remain silent when a state’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence are under attack.”
“No one will shake Schallenberg’s hand”
Smugly commented on Zakharova Schallenberg’s statement in an interview with the German “Welt” that he would only “shake hands briefly” with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov: “What is your emotional desperation about needing to shake hands with the Russian [Außen-]Minister in a hypothetical possible personal meeting with him, we would like to assure Minister Schallenberg that no one would come to shake his hand,” said Zakharova. No one would come to see Schallenberg to shake her hand.
“I don’t know the informal channels”
She was also surprised that Alexander Schallenberg spoke about informal communication channels between Vienna and Moscow in the interview: “We don’t know anything about that.” .”w)