With all this crazyness, there is no-one actually going to moscow to push putler to the wall literally, I think it's a proof of lazyness from western leaders, people should go there, one by one to try everything they can.
Austria is maybe not best in class, as country is importing lots of gas and oil from russia, but at least they are going to moscow.....
Karl Nehammer is the first Western leader to meet with the russian president since the invasion
BERLIN — Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he had a “direct” and “tough” conversation with vladimir putler on Monday as he became the first Western leader to meet with the russian president since moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Following their 75-minute meeting in moscow, Nehammer said that he had pressed for an immediate cease-fire and humanitarian corridors.
“This is not a friendly visit,” he said in a statement. “I have just come from Ukraine and have seen with my own eyes the immeasurable suffering caused by the russian war of aggression.”
The Austrian chancellor has conceded that the decision to visit moscow was contentious, but said he felt a duty to leave “no stone unturned” to stop hostilities and meet humanitarian needs. There was no joint news conference after the meeting, because of concerns in Vienna that it could be used for russian propaganda purposes.
Other European leaders have maintained telephone contact with putler but have not visited moscow in person. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett visited the kremlin last month in an effort to act as a go-between.
Nehammer said he “informed” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European partners, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, of the moscow visit in advance, but it was unclear the extent to which it was coordinated.
An E.U. official and an E.U diplomat confirmed that the Austrian side had told Brussels of the plan to meet Putin, but they declined to comment further.
Austria has backed European sanctions against Russia, but it has been one of several E.U. countries that opposed adopting tougher measures on russian energy. It is dependent on moscow for 80 percent of its gas needs, and it has deep financial and commercial ties with the country. Austria’s finance minister, Magnus Brunner, last week dismissed the idea of sanctions in response to scenes emerging from Bucha, Ukraine — where russia has been accused of killing hundreds of residents during its month-long occupation — saying it was important to “keep a cool head.”
Nehammer said on Monday that he had made it clear to putler that sanctions would remain in place or be tightened for as long as people are dying in Ukraine. The E.U. “is as united on this issue as ever,” he said.
The moscow meeting came after a weekend visit by Nehammer to Ukraine, where he met with Zelensky and visited Bucha.
“We are militarily neutral, but have a clear position on the russian war of aggression against Ukraine,” Nehammer wrote on Twitter ahead of his meeting with putler. “It has to stop!”
kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the meeting was initiated by Austria.
Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg told Bloomberg News that it was an opportunity to send “a very clear political message” to Putin “that he is isolating russia, that he will lose this war morally.”
The foreign minister spoke on the sidelines of a meeting of the E.U. Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg.
The session with the Austrian chancellor was intended as a reality check for putler, to convey that “this war is a war that he cannot win morally: He has lost it already,” Schallenberg said. “Every voice that makes him understand how the world really looks like outside of the walls of the kremlin is, I believe, an important voice.”
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer visits Bucha, Ukraine, on April 9, ahead of a meeting with russian President vladimir putler on Monday. (Dragan Tatic/Austrian Chancellery/Handout/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
Source: Washington post
By Loveday Morris
Yesterday at 12:21 p.m. EDT
Robyn Dixon in moscow and Emily Rauhala and Quentin Ariès in Brussels contributed to this report.
