The dance of Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who she had invited to her wedding on Aug. 18, was a disturbing vision for me.
The European Union politician was smiling, dancing, and then curtsying the dictator who occupied a part of my country and has kidnapped and jailed in Russian prisons more than 70 Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars in political cases.
She was dancing with a man who launched in the Donbas a war that has killed more than 10,300 of my fellow citizens and forced 1.5 million to flee their homes, causing the biggest internal migration crisis in Europe.
So Kneissl was dancing with death on her wedding day—literally. And her dance is dangerous for the whole of Europe.
Kneissl stated she asked Putin to come for a private celebration and a personal visit.
Oh, Frau Kneissl, you should not have danced with the Kremlin.
The Ukrainian government danced with it for more than 20 years.
As a result, our country was practically sold to Russia. Ours was a country in which it was not considered prestigious to speak its native language, while the Russian language prevailed. Where everything Ukrainian was presented as dull, archaic, or artificial. Where the entire production industry was aimed at the Russian market, and would have collapsed without Russian money.
Even for the world, we continued to be seen as a suburb of Russia, long after we became an independent country.
When the people of Ukraine decided they did not want to dance with the Kremlin any longer and took to the streets of Kyiv during the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2014, we got a warning from our country’s pro-Kremlin government: Don’t anger Russia!
Then the warning was followed by beatings and killings.
Many people, even some of my relatives, are still questioning our 2014 national decision to protest against the Kremlin’s rule in our country. Daily life, independent from the firm, guiding one-two-step of Putin, has become trying for us.
Undermining united Europe
Kneissl’s dance with Putin put not only Austria but the whole European Union in danger of the same kind of hybrid invasion by the Kremlin.
When the EU responded to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine by imposing and then prolonging economic sanctions against Russia, the Kremlin’s leader learned something. He realized that he could only undermine the strongest geopolitical player on the continent, the EU, from within.
And Kneissl, as well as many other radical nationalistic politicians from all over the EU, have become his faithful minions.
Kneissl is originally a member of the Freedom Party of Austria, or Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs.
The FPO, a radical nationalist party created in 1956, is a successor of the short-lived Federation of Independents Party that was headed by Anton Reinthaller, a former Nazi functionary and SS officer.
The party came third in Austria’s 2017 parliamentary elections. It has supported Russia’s claim to Crimea and called for the easing of sanctions against Moscow.
After the FPO presidential candidate lost the Austrian presidential election in 2016, the far-right party—dubbed “friends of Putin”—went to Moscow and signed a cooperation agreement with Putin’s Yedinaya Rossia (United Russia Party). Its stated goal was to boost the “rise of younger generations in the spirit of patriotism.”
Divide and rule
Putin’s friends have not only flooded Austrian domestic politics. Since the start of 2014-2015, right-wing populist parties have been on the rise in Europe. Although some experts claim that they were propelled into power by the migrant crisis, I have noticed the signs of a puppet master operating in the shadows.
Here is one example. On June 14, the European Parliament adopted a resolution pressing Russian authorities for the immediate release of Oleg Sentsov, who has been on a hunger-strike in a Russian prison for 100 days. And for the release of all other illegally detained Ukrainian citizens in Russia.
But not all the parties voted for the resolution. About 76 lawmakers voted against. Coincidentally, most of them were members of pro-Putin far-right political parties, dubbed the “red-brown alliance”.
But that’s not all. Radical parties from across Europe have been pushing the Kremlin’s “Ukraine as a failed state narrative.”
During a July 30 speech at a university in Romania, another friend of Putin, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said that Ukraine has proven itself to be a failed state and would return under Russian influence in 2019.
Far-right politicians always justify their actions against Ukraine by saying they fight for the interests of their own countries, which also suffered from the economic sanctions that restrain trade with the Kremlin.
They have also been using the “no migrants narrative,” painful for all Europeans, to win places in parliaments—and in people’s minds.
The radical Hungarian party Jobbik, which in 2014 called for Crimea to be recognized as Russian territory, came second after Fidesz-KNDP alliance during Hungary’s April 2017 elections.
Jobbik has also called for the “return” of Zakarpattya to Hungary, a far-western Oblast of Ukraine that was part of Hungary before World War I.
“Russia is a powerful international player” “Don’t anger Russia,” “Ukraine’s war is Ukraine’s problem,” “We should keep good relations with Russia” – these are just a few of the Western far-right narratives I disagree with.
They may all say “we are stronger than corrupt Ukraine. So the Kremlin wouldn’t dare to invade us.”
And that is true. The Kremlin used raw military force to invade Ukraine, weakened by years of being Russia’s vassal.
Here on Ukrainian soil, we have let Putin advance too far. And he will go further. But to invade Europe he will use a different strategy. And it goes to the beat of one-two-step.
Russian President Vladimir Putin dances with Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl on the day of her wedding on Aug.18.( Courtesy of RT)
