Ukrainian Embassy in Austria to respond to right-wing references to 'Russian Crimea'
Ukrainian Ambassador Alexander Scherba wrote on Facebook that the Ukrainian Embassy in Austria will take official steps regarding the statements of Austrian right-wing politician Norbert Hofer “regarding the fallacy of recognizing Crimea as Russian territory.”
The Ambassador noted that by failing to recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the leader of the Freedom party of Austria “decided to try on the Kosovorotka (traditional Russian shirt) of the Russian nationalists.” Scherba summed up his comments by saying that “as an Embassy, we will take official steps.”
Hofer is the Deputy Chairman of the Austrian Parliament and the Radical Party’s presidential candidate for 2016. At the end of the week he said in an interview for the Austrian media that “it is time to stop imposing sanctions against Russia for the annexation of Crimea and the military invasion of the Donbas.”
Replying to the question about the justification of the sanctions against Russia because of the annexation, Hofer noted that the sanctions are unjustifiable and that after the collapse of the USSR, “allegations that Crimea is not a Russian territory were a fundamental mistake.”
However, he acknowledged that the annexation of the Crimea was “a breach of international law” but he called on involved nations “to be more pragmatic in this issue” and emphasized that sanctions against Russia “will not last forever.”
It was reported earlier that Austria, Hungary and Czech Republic are the states most susceptible to Russian propaganda.