Karl NEHAMMER said “pessimistic” after his meeting with the Russian president, who was “not a friendly visit”.
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Limited virtues of face-to-face diplomacy. First European leader to meet Vladimir Putin since the beginning of his “special operation” in Ukraine, the Austrian Chancellor Karl NEHAMMER could only see the determination of his interlocutor to pursue hostilities, Monday, April 11, after a brief visit to Moscow . “If you ask me if I’m optimistic or pessimistic, so I’m rather pessimistic,” said NEHAMMER in the press. Do not be illusions, President Putin entered massively in a logic of war and he acts accordingly. “
The Austrian Chancellor had been criticized for this impromptu initiative. Austria, neutral country and depends on Russian gas for 80% of its supplies, has so far been content with some shy expulsions of Russian diplomats. The Greens, Coalition Partners of the Conservatives of Mr. NEHAMMER, feared on their side that this meeting does not rompe the isolation of Mr. Putin and used for propaganda purposes by Moscow.
Russian President has just been content with his European counterparts, telephone conversations – new with Emmanuel Macron, seven with Olaf Scholz, for the most regular. Since the 24th of February, he had met in the face-to-face than Israeli Naftali Bennett, Belarusian Alexander Loukachenko and the Pakistani Imran Khan. Karl NEHAMMER, arrived in power in December 2021, had never met the Russian leader.
“Have a personal contact”
Received for almost an hour thirty in Novo-Ogarevo, the private residence of M. Putin, the Chancellor ensures to mention the war crimes including Moscow is accused, especially in Bantcha, locality of North kyiv where he s “Were on Saturday -” I saw with my own eyes the immeasurable suffering caused by Russian aggression, “he recalled – and the need to open humanitarian corridors for the civilians trapped by the fighting. “It was not a friendly visit,” he insisted, qualifying the discussions of “very direct, frank and hard”.
At the request of Vienna, the protocol had been reduced to a minimum, without the slightest handful image. Monday night, the Kremlin saw no record of the meeting.
Karl Nehammer said he informed the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz “of the content of the exchange”. He had consulted other partners upstream of his visit (in Berlin, Brussels and Ankara), of which he had summarized before his departure the main message: “In this war, there are only losers.”
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