No "friendship"

Russian ambassador in Vienna rarely has meetings

Dmitri Lyubinsky, Russia's ambassador in Vienna, has been professionally isolated since the war in Ukraine.(Bild: Klemens Groh)

For decades, Russian ambassadors in Austria enjoyed a privileged status. However, since the start of the war in Ukraine, this is likely to be over. Ambassador Dmitry Lyubinsky now only rarely has meetings with high-ranking representatives in Austria.

In January 2023, for example, he was not invited to the re-inauguration of Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen, and the Russian ambassador was also not on the guest list for the Hofburg's New Year receptions for diplomats. Previously, Lyubinsky had repeatedly visited the Hofburg and the Federal Chancellery.

"No reason to speak of friendship"
"There is no reason to speak of friendship today", said Lyubinsky a few days ago. He criticized Austria's foreign policy course without much success. Russian gas, for example, had become a "subjugating dependency". Neutrality was being devalued and reduced to a military aspect. "From our point of view, Vienna is no longer in demand as a negotiating venue," said the diplomat.

Here you can see a photo of Reinhold Lopatka (left) and Dmitri Ljubinski (right) from 2016.

Austrians hardly ever visit the embassy
Conversely, prominent representatives hardly ever come to the embassy of the Russian Federation anymore. In the past two years, the then editor-in-chief of the online medium Exxpress, Richard Schmitt (for interviews), and ÖVP MP Reinhold Lopatka (for OSCE activities) visited. The President of the National Council, Wolfgang Sobotka, also visited the embassy in December 2021.

These developments over the past two years mark the end of an episode in Austrian foreign policy that has given representatives of Moscow a special status since 1955 and the regaining of sovereignty.

"The fact that he can reach the highest echelons of the state at any time of day or night and blow their ears off is of course also an attraction for him, because it makes his stature in Moscow appear too great and they listen to him unduly," said Herbert Grubmayr, the Austrian ambassador to Moscow at the time, about his counterpart Gennady Shikin in 1987.