Of . – 04/06/2022 09:43 (act 04/06/2022 11:05)
Russian diplomats are still not being expelled from Austria. ©AP (image of symbol)
Austria does not do the same as other EU member states and does not expel Russian diplomats. However, the Russian embassy in Vienna has to accept the criticisms of Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP).
Austria still does not want to join the expulsion of Russian diplomats announced by several EU states. Austria is following the “no mass eviction” policy, Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) said Tuesday night on ORF’s ZiB2. “I find it regrettable that each state is acting individually here,” continued the minister.
Austria: No expulsion of Russian diplomats
After Germany, France and Lithuania had already taken the appropriate measures on Monday, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Slovenia, Romania, Portugal, as well as Estonia and Latvia followed on Tuesday. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also announced on Tuesday that 19 officials from the Russian EU representation would be declared undesirable. Slovenia has acted particularly drastic. He expelled 33 of the 41 employees from the Russian embassy in Ljubljana.
If Article 11 were used, Russia could expel Austrian diplomats
Slovenia referred to Article 11 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Rights, which allows the number of diplomats to be reduced to that of its own diplomats in the sending State. As Slovenia has only eight diplomats in Moscow, 33 of the 41 Russian embassy employees have to leave Slovenia. Schallenberg said he reserved the right to “proceed in accordance with Article 11 of the Vienna Diplomatic Convention.” However, it is to be expected that “Russia will take reciprocal action”, i.e. expel the same number of Austrian diplomats from Moscow “and in fact the Austrian embassy will have to close the door”.
Schallenberg does not rule out the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Austria
The second option is to declare diplomats undesirable for intelligence work. If there are “strong indications” of this, “I will take appropriate action,” Schallenberg assured. “I reserve the right to expel diplomats”, stressed the minister, who harshly criticized the Russian embassy in Vienna as a “propaganda machine”. He “does not see a state visit for Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin,” Schallenberg said, confirming his statement to the APA before the Butscha massacre that there could be no “return to the status quo ante” with Putin. Previous European policy toward Putin was “in retrospect, perhaps … naive,” but “at the time that policy was the right one,” Schallenberg said in an interview with ORF. “We all misjudged him. If we had misjudged him in the European Union, we would have acted very differently.”