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Austrian leader holds open and tough talks with Putin. PHOTO/Reuters
Nehammer is the first EU leader to meet with Putin since he ordered his troops to invade Ukraine on February 24. While Austria generally maintains closer ties to Moscow than most of the European Union.
Read: Zelensky refuses to hand over Ukraine to calm Russia
In a statement following the meeting, Nehammer said discussions with Putin were “very direct, open and hard”.
He added that his most important message to Putin was that the war in Ukraine must end, because “in war there are only losers on both sides”.
A spokesman for Nehammer said Monday afternoon that the meeting took place at Putin’s official Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow. Austrian media including the Kronen Zeitung newspaper said the meeting lasted about 90 minutes.
Nehammer has expressed solidarity with Ukraine over the Russian invasion. He strongly condemns Russia’s war crimes there, while his government has joined other European Union countries in expelling Russian diplomats, albeit for only a fraction of Russia’s large diplomatic presence there.
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“Let’s hope there are more visits by the chancellor of Austria #Nehammer to Putin than has been said and seen. Austria has played the role of a useful Moscow fool far too often in the past,” Austrian comparative politics professor at the University of Salzburg Reinhard Heinisch wrote on Twitter, as quoted by Reuters. from Reuters.
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