Alex Christoforou
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss the Vice-Chancellor of Austria discussing shady deals and financial kickbacks, caught on video, in what appears to be a sting operation that went down in Ibiza in 2017.
The sting operation involved a staged set up, with a woman posing as a wealthy ‘Russian oligarch niece’. Neoliberal, globalists (looking to take down the conservative right movement sweeping across Europe) now claim that ‘Russia took over’ Austria.
According to Politico, the video appears to have been part of an elaborate sting by unknown individuals, but no deals followed. Nonetheless, Strache’s apparent eagerness to circumvent the law opens the door for prosecutors to explore his other dealings, in particular the possibility that he and his party received secret donations.
In the video, Strache discusses how his conversation partner — a woman he believes to be the wealthy niece of a Russian oligarch — could secretly funnel money to his campaign. The footage was recorded in 2017, a few months before the election that vaulted Strache into power alongside Kurz’s People’s Party.
He tells the woman she should set up a nonprofit organization as a conduit for the funds, a strategy he says other wealthy donors have used to help his party.
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STING Operation By “unknown Individuals” Brings Down Austria’s Coalition Government by The Duran
The Duran Quick Take: Episode 175. The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss the Vice-Chancellor of Austria discussing shady deals and financial kickbacks, caught on video, in what appears to be a sting operation that went down in Ibiza in 2017.
Via RT…
Austria’s ruling coalition party is under fire after a leaked video showed the vice chancellor discussing alleged quid pro quo arrangements with a “Russian oligarch niece” … and some pundits quickly had their Russiagate meltdowns.
The scandal rocked the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) on Friday after two German publications, Spiegel and Suddeutscher Zeitung, released exposes of a video leaked to them by an unnamed party. The video shows a July 2017 meeting at an Ibiza villa, where Heinz-Christian Strache, the party leader and vice chancellor of Austria, and Johann Gudenus, Strache’s protégé and senior figure in the FPO, discuss alleged shady deals with an unidentified woman.
The conversations reportedly lasted for hours. One of the options “discussed” there was that the mysterious woman “and her companion” would buy a majority share in Austria’s major tabloid – Kronen Zeitung – and use it to prop up FPO’s bid in the October 2017 national election.
The FPO narrowly came in third place and became a junior partner in the current ruling coalition. In exchange, the politicians said the woman’s construction business could get government contracts once the party is in power. The politicians also discussed alleged circumventing of Austria’s transparency laws for political donations by funneling money through a charity.
The scandal led to opposition calls for the two politicians implicated to resign and even for the coalition to break up, which could lead to a snap election. On Saturday, Strache confirmed the meeting but insisted the information was taken out of context. He still announced his resignation as FPO chief and vice chancellor not to damage the ruling coalition. Gudenus did the same, giving up his mandate as a member of the Austrian Parliament.
That said, some pundits already had their usual Russiagate meltdowns, alleging the tape proves that the FPO was bought and paid-for by Moscow, which conspired with the right-wing party to destroy Austria’s freedom of the press. The pièce de résistance in this claim is that the woman Strache and Gudenus talked with is described as a “suspected Russian oligarch niece.”
Anne Applebaum on Twitter: “oh look, the Austrian far-right party leader is prepared to accept clandestine Russian money, and has ambitions to destroy the free press https://t.co/DhKRQE61YG / Twitter”
oh look, the Austrian far-right party leader is prepared to accept clandestine Russian money, and has ambitions to destroy the free press https://t.co/DhKRQE61YG
https://twitter.com/dabeard/status/1129513815941558273
Stefan Windberger 🇺🇦 on Twitter: “#Austria: Leaked video w/ Vice Chancellor #Strache shows his willingness to work for #Russia for some $$$ (➡️ link). His closest aide #Gudenus is already on Russia’s payroll (➡️ thread). Regardless of your political position: this is how democracy dies. https://t.co/NM7gVROnG4 https://t.co/qh6G0hUpbb / Twitter”
Austria: Leaked video w/ Vice Chancellor #Strache shows his willingness to work for #Russia for some $$$ (➡️ link). His closest aide #Gudenus is already on Russia’s payroll (➡️ thread). Regardless of your political position: this is how democracy dies. https://t.co/NM7gVROnG4 https://t.co/qh6G0hUpbb
The German outlets indeed say the woman spoke Russian and English. This leaves a pretty large field of options for who she might be besides a relative of a Kremlin-controlled businessman, through whom the Russian government may have wanted to gain influence in Austria.
Strache himself said on Saturday the woman was a Russian-speaking Latvian national, who told Gudenus that she and her daughter wanted to move to Vienna to secure the meeting. He added they were an obvious plant, considering how the situation played out.
Notably, Der Spiegel article itself says that the video was “clearly done as a trap” for the FPO politicians. The scandal conveniently erupted days before the European Parliament election in Austria and may understandably hurt the FPO’s performance.
Anyway, if the “niece” was a Russian government agent, it doesn’t seem that she managed to get Strache and Gudenus on board with some plan to subvert the election. At least the reports say no agreements were reached at the meeting. The Kronen Zeitung tabloid did partially change ownership after the discussion, but it happened in autumn 2018 and the buyer was Austrian entrepreneur Rene Benko, who told Spiegel the deal was purely commercial.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
But she spoke Russian . Nice touch .I understand that there are also many Russian people living in Tel Aviv. Just saying .From an anonymous source of course.
…and so did Natalia Veselnitskaya when she met with Trump Jr. and reported to Fusion GPS afterwards. Go figure.
Expert about accepting money Ann Applebaum :
https://www.cepa.org/international-advisory-council
CEPA accepting money:
https://www.cepa.org/support
Anne Applebaum: “oh look, the Austrian far-right party leader is prepared to accept clandestine Russian money, and has ambitions to destroy the free press.”
Oh look, your hubbie is prepared to fabricate meetings with Putin and concoct an offer to Poland to split Ukraine in two because he believes in a free press, journalistic integrity and has a yearning ambition to continue performing fellatio on America, even though he says he hasn’t gotten anything for his service yet.
To help identify who and what Anne Applebum is I quote Israeli Jew spy Jonathan Pollard at his sentencing hearing in the USA;
“I am a Jew, and as a Jew my first allegiance is to the state of Israel.”
Worse than trying to bring down the corrupt Austrian government is what they’re doing to Russia — once again, the narrative is “Russia stole the election” when there is not a shred of evidence that any Russian was involved. There was a woman PRETENDING to be Russian. That’s all. But of course that’s enough to start another month of non-stop Russia bashing. And of course the evidence of who arranged this points in the direction of Germany (certainly German’s beloved-by-the-corporate-media-hated-by-everyone-else “comedian” Jan Boehmermann knew in advance, given he talked about the details of this “just released” footage 2 weeks ago).… Read more »
Just typical politicians at work. I mean, if Trump can take money from Sheldon Adelson, Europeans could take money from the devil himself before I’d blink an eye.
The Khazar fake Jewish shape-shifters are at it again.
When they wanted to leave a reamed out USSR they were suddenly ‘Jews’.
As soon as they left, they were Russians and have, in this way, misrepresented and maligned Russia in the West ever since.