Pursuits
Austria Seeks `Normal' Ties With Russia Through Oil and Music
- President Fischer to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow next week
- OMV, Gazprom asset swap includes scientific, cultural deal
Johann Strauss statue in Vienna.
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Austria, a neutral country whose executives plied both sides of the Iron Curtain even during the height of the Cold War, is advocating “normal” ties with Russia after 20 months of European Union sanctions against the country.
While the trade embargoes are in line with international law, “normal relations” should be the goal in the long term, Austrian Finance Minister Hans Joerg Schelling told reporters in St. Petersburg, Russia. He spoke on the eve of an agreement signed Friday between state-owned oil producer OMV AG and Russia’s Gazprom PJSC to swap assets in Siberia and the North Sea.