"Oh my God, 55% of Austria’s gas continues to come from Russia,” Martin Selmayr lamented in Vienna. Paying for continued Russian supplies was tantamount to helping finance its war against Ukraine, and no one protested, he added.
I’m from Austria and I applaud him for saying the truth.
It’s embarrassing how many austrian politicians are defending the russian gas imports.
It’s embarrassing how many austrian politicians are defending the russian gas imports.
Sadly true.
Why One Country Is Struggling to Break Away From Russian Gas (July 2023)
Germany, which got 55 percent of its supply from Russia before the war, now imports zero. Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic have halted or are close to halting flows. And Italy has been steadily trimming imports, and pledges to be free of Russian natural gas by the end of this year.
By contrast, Austria, which received nearly 80 percent of its gas from Russia before the invasion, still got more than half its total from Russia in May. And in March, when demand was higher, the figure reached 74 percent. As long as Russia is selling gas, Austria will buy it, the chief executive of the Austrian energy company OMV Group said this month.
The government’s difficulties in weaning itself off Russian gas, which it has pledged to do, have drawn complaints from critics who say Austria’s gas payments are helping to finance Moscow’s war machine.
to be fair - Austria has the FPÖ and most of the country doesn’t have any problem with those far-right nuts. So the bar of being embarassed by stuff like that is pretty high already to begin with if you’re in Austria.
He absolutely is right.
But it absolutely dumb to say this at an Event where you are invited to in your representative role, when the EU Commission you are representing doesnt agree with that statement.
Nah it’s dumb to remain silent in fear.
It’s smart to use your platform to push for progress
There is diplomatic protocol. If he has the “go” from the commission to criticize Austria, he absolutely should do so. But if he doesnt have that backing, he is actively creating a diplomatic crisis.
Oh no, a diplomatic crisis. How horrible. That sounds as bad as the children being killed in Ukraine by Russia.
Summoned for speaking the truth? Interesting democracy you have there, Austria
hearsay your honor!
Austria certainly has a history with royalty
Diplomats aren’t free to speak whatever they want. Even if he is speaking the truth, you can’t do that in his position. Very unprofessional.
Is this sarcasm?
No it’s not. Diplomats represent another party (country) not their own wants.
Nah, if it were me, even if I “knew better.” I would still break the rules and the social contract and speak out. Better to say what is being left unsaid than to have it weigh on the conscience. Even if doing so put me in deep shit, I would be proud I stuck to my principles.
Sadly this is why people like you and I aren’t working in government. Too many cowards in there.
You are aware that they have other channels for that? Contacts in the media who can print a story citing you “anonymously” etc.
Speaking out yourself as a diplomat creates a diplomatic crisis and increases the rift between the body you’re representing and the hosting country.
So, not only are they buying Russian gas, they also don’t supply weapons to Ukraine. Just great.
A former government signed an agreement to pay for Russian gas until 2050. This is of course completely bonkers, but unfortunately there’s no legal way to hold them accountable for this.
Pay 1€ a year then
It’s more specific than that.
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My opinion of your country has become pretty negative because of how it has responded to Russia’s barbaric land grab. You can put whatever lipstick you want on it, but it’s shameful for you to stand with people committing genocide just to make some money.
The bad apples are quite visible sadly. Tons of Austrian companies have pulled out of Russia, tons of Austrians companies have been producing in Ukraine for years and obviously support Ukraine. But a few big conglomerates like Raiffeisen keep giving us a bad name because they dont want to lose money.
The gas thing is yet another blunder by the OMV (our gas+oil company) and the conservative party who signed a contract with Russia. We absolutely should be buying our gas elsewhere, but that’s not realistic as long as we have no suppliers. The government dont want Austrians to freeze in the winter. Other EU countries have done exactly zero to help us out in that regard btw. Moldova is switching from Russian gas to Romanian gas currently because Romania heavily helps them.
And the government is incompetent as fuck and still partly influenced by friends of Russia.
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I’m sure I must be misinterpreting your comment because it reads to me as if you think opposing Russian’s invasion is wrong and the result of being gullible…
Of course you can choose to not trade with Russia if you’re neutral.
In these discussion all I hear is $$$
It’s not the neutral kind of neutrality, it’s the swiss “fan the flames of bloodshed by profiting from the whole thing as much as possible” kind of neutrality.
I think it’s the “I can’t let you kill this guy in front of me, so, to remain neutral in that matter, I will turn around, put my fingers into my ears and if the other one manages to - out of accident - stumble into your knife a couple of times, it’s just something I couldn’t help about.” kind of neutrality the Austrians are talking about.
Yep, the swiss stayed neutral because of nazi blood money…sounds like Austria is doing the same for russian blood oil.
Austria isn’t neutral. Austria is de facto a russian asset in Europe. The Austrian intelligence helped with the ties to have the wirecard ceo flee to Russia, after his fraud became apparent. In intelligence circles nothing sensitive is shared with Austria anymore, as it is certain to be passed to the Russians. In the Ibiza video high ranking Austrian fascist politicians, of a government party proved more than willing to sell the country out to Russia in exchange for russian influence on austrian media. There is many ties between Austrian economic and political elites and Russia. In particular thanks to the strength of the fascist and the reactionary party. Also the fascist party is currently leading in the polls with 28%. So many Austrians want Austria to do Putins bidding and harm the EU and international peace.
the Kremlin playbook 2 illustrates the situation quite well.
government party
Wrong, FPÖ wasnt in government when the video was made and isnt in government now either.
And there is no proof that “Austrian intelligence helped the Wirecard CEO flee to Russia”. Also Marsalek wasnt CEO. The guy who supposedly helped him escape is an ex intelligence member who is well known for his controversial views and role in scandals.
But you’re definitely right about the fascist party’s ties to Russia and the strength of the economic elite.
Neutral, aka doing nothing while watching other people suffer and die.
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Neutrality amounts to a ball in equilibrium on a rope, only because the world is full of belligerents, wannabe strongmen and plain stupid morons doing egoistic stuff all the time forcing more tempered people to take sides
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Because the money we send to Russia to pay for it is used in ways that end up costing us more money than we save by not buying the gas somewhere else.
Even if you are ok with overt acts of aggression, the economic argument is not hard to make.
Price of gas in the EU is now cheaper than when we bought it from Russia: https://ycharts.com/indicators/europe_natural_gas_price
Just saying…
