On Friday, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz confirmed that a former colonel in the Austrian armed forces has been suspected of spying for Russia over the course of about two decades.
Vienna's statements and actions surrounding the case of an ex-army colonel accused of spying for Moscow are based on suspicions, and there is no evidence backing them up, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a press statement Friday.
“We have turned the Ambassador's attention to the statement made by Karin Kneissl, Austria's Minister for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs, that if the suspicions of espionage are confirmed, Russian-Austrian relations would be seriously aggravated,” the statement, devoted to the Foreign Ministry meeting with Austrian Ambassador to Russia Johannes Aigner, says.
“We emphasized that the steps taken by Vienna, based on suspicions without any evidence whatsoever, have already led to the complication of our relations, which until recently enjoyed a positive dynamic,” the Foreign Ministry added.
Ambassador Aigner was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry Friday afternoon over the diplomatic incident.
The Foreign Ministry handed Ambassador Aigner an official note of protest, and informed him that Moscow is “puzzled” by the fact that its Austrian partners “chose not to discuss their suspicions with us through the established channels of dialogue, but instead resorted to what has…
