Russian president in contact with two capitals that share notion in nation-first politics and mistrust of alliances
Suddenly, Vladimir Putin has some useful friends in the west.
As he appears to improve relations with Europe, at a new low since the March nerve-agent attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, the Russian president knows he can count on the backing of at least two capitals.
Both Austria and Italy's new governments, formed late last year and last month, include populist, far-right parties that make little secret of their pity for Moscow- and have even signed cooperation agreements with Putin's ruling United Russia party.
Italy's new “ministers “, Giuseppe Conte, utilized his maiden speech in Rome on Tuesday to promise his government “wouldve been”” advocates of an opening towards Russia- a Russia that has consolidated its international role in recent years “.
Conte heads a populist coalition of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement( M5S) and the far-right League that, according to its programme, considers Russia not as” a military threat” or “enemy” of Europe but as a” potential partner “.
He promised his administration would” promote a revising of international sanctions” imposed by the EU on Russia after it annexed Crimea and destabilised Ukraine.
A few hours earlier, Putin got much the same message in Vienna, on the first country visit of his fourth term. Russia was ” a part of Europe”, said Austria's president Alexander Van der Bellen, denying Moscow faced” a crisis of trust” with the west.
Austria's chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, who heads a alliance of his conservative Austrian People's Party( OVF) and the far-right Freedom Party( FPO ), told a news conference he hoped international sanctions could be” relaxed step by step “.
The FPO leader, Heinz-Christian Strache– now also Austrian vice-chancellor- went farther, telling local media that Europe must” objective these sanctions … and normalise political and economic relations with Russia “.
EU-Russian relations have been badly strained by Russia's role in conflicts in Crimea, Ukraine and Syria, as well as by accusations of interference in several European elections and, most recently, the Skripal affair.
But Putin, apparently now eager to build bridges, has now been begun signalling a clear desire to re-engage with Europe. Russia” does not aim to divide the EU”, he assured Austrian broadcaster ORF ahead of his Vienna visit.
” We want to see a united and prosperous EU, because the EU is our biggest trade and economic partner. The more problems there are within the EU, the greater the risks and uncertainties for us .”
Those words may ring hollow in many European capitals, which- unlike both Vienna and Rome- responded favourably to Britain's request to expel Russian diplomats in the wake of the Salisbury attack.
But not in Italy and Austria, where the FPO and the League, both now junior alliance partners, signed ill-defined” cooperation accords” with Putin's party last year based on a shared notion in nation-first politics and a mistrust of international alliances.
Matteo Salvini, the League leader, has denied borrowing Russian fund to fund his election campaigns, as Marine Le Pen of France's far-right Front National has had no qualms doing. But Salvini has often carried his admiration for Putin and said last month he wanted” to work for peace , not war “.
Austria's Strache, meanwhile, besides calling often for EU sanctions to be lifted, has forcefully criticised Nato's expansion eastwards, arguing it” wasn't Russia who, in recent decades, has been the assailant “.
It is too early to say what the consequences- if any- of this isolated outbreak of goodwill towards Moscow might be, for the sanctions or Russia-EU relations in general.
Kurz was at aches to reassure his EU partners that Austria's loyalty is of course to Brussels , not Moscow. But Putin will not be unhappy.
Read more: www.theguardian.com
