Austria's Strache urges end to EU Russia sanctions
June 3, 2018
The leader of Austria's Freedom Party says he wants to end EU sanctions imposed on Russia in response to the Ukraine crisis. Heinz-Christian Strache says the measures have damaged the Austrian economy.
Image: Reuters/H. Bader
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Heinz-Christian Strache was quoted on Sunday by Austria's Österreich newspaper as saying sanctions against Russia should be ended.
"It is high time to put an end to these exasperating sanctions and normalize political and economic relations with Russia," he said. The EU sanctions against Russia were imposed in an effort to return Crimea to Ukraine and end an ongoing conflict in the east of Ukraine.
The remarks by Strache, leader of Austria's Freedom Party (FPÖ), come amid a European diplomatic push to resolve the situation in Ukraine. The vice chancellor is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vienna during the week.
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The 2014 Ukraine crisis prompted EU states to close ranks with the US and impose sanctions on Russia. Most mainstream politicians remain wary of Moscow, leaving a political vacuum that EU populists are ready to fill.
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Strache wants to end sanctions
Austria's Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache has repeatedly called for EU sanctions against Russia to be lifted. Strache, who is also the leader of the populist FPÖ party, criticized NATO expansion to the east. "It wasn't Russia who was the aggressor in recent decades, who was trying to spread its zone of military influence towards the border of the European Union," he said in 2015.
Image: Reuters/H. Bader
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Far-right veteran Jean-Marie Le Pen got into trouble in 2015, when, in addition to saying gas chambers were a "detail" of history, he claimed that France should get along with Russia to save the "white world." These statements prompted his daughter Marine to push him ouf of the Front National party.
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Marine Le Pen denies claims of Putin influence
French nationalist leader Marine Le Pen has described sanctions against Russia as "completely stupid." She also claimed Crimea "has always been Russian." Her party admits to taking loans from Russian banks, but Le Pen rejected claims of Moscow's influence as outrageous and harmful. The photo shows her meeting with Vladmir Putin in the Kremlin in 2017.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Klimentyev
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Germany's anti-migrant AFD party is relatively popular among German voters with Russian background. Senior members of the party, including then-leader Frauke Petry, meet Putin's ruling party lawmakers in Moscow in 2017. The AFD also believes the EU sanctions are a "farce." However, party co-leader Alexander Gauland denies that the party supports Putin and "his authoritarian regime."
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Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban often hosts Russia's Vladimir Putin in Budapest and the two leaders share many similarities in their ruling style. Orban has complained that politicians in Brussels must "demonize" Putin in order to be considered good Europeans. However, Hungary also joined the UK-led diplomatic offensive by expelling Russian diplomats over the poisoning of Sergei Skripal.
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Geert Wilders under fire for visiting Moscow
Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders slammed Russia after flight MH17 was shot down in 2014 and backed sanctions against the country In 2018, however, he sparked outrage from relatives of MH17 victims by decrying "russophobia" during a Moscow visit. Wilders describes himself as a "a big fan of NATO and of the Americans" but says Russia could be an ally against migration and Islamic terrorism.
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Matteo Salvini and the new rulers in Rome
Italy's populist League and the Five Star Movement form a ruling coalition in Italy. Both parties oppose sanctions on Russia and NATO's "aggressive" buildup in Eastern Europe. Following the elections, the League's leader Matteo Salvini said he wanted "to work for peace, not for war. I do not want to assemble little tanks like the game of Risk.”
Image: Getty Images/AFP/A. Solaro
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Germany's foreign minister, Heiko Maas, is scheduled to attend a summit with his counterparts from France, Russia and Ukraine in Berlin on June 11 to discuss the crisis.
Strache, whose pro-Moscow Freedom Party (FPÖ) is junior partner to Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's conservatives, has previously spoken out against the sanctions and warned against pushing Russia into the arms of China. Austria's coalition government says it wants to act as a bridge between east and west, while Kurz has stressed its pro-EU stance is secure.
In 2016, top FPÖ party members signed a five-year cooperation agreement with Putin's United Russia partyImage: picture Alliance/dpa/FPÖ Linz
Agreement with Putin's party
Top-ranking FPÖ party members went to Moscow in 2016 to sign a five-year cooperation agreement with Putin's United Russia party. According to press reports, one of the points described the "raising of younger generations in the spirit of patriotism and work enjoyment." Sergei Zheleznyak, deputy speaker of Russia's lower house — who signed the agreement and who is on the EU sanctions list — praised the party for opposing the EU sanctions.
Austria will take over the EU's rotating presidency for six months in July.
