The Special Representative for “international cultural cooperation” Mikhail Shvydkoy was able to visit, in addition to Austria, as well as Slovakia.
Austria issued a visa to the special representative of Russia’s formal leader for “international cultural cooperation” Mikhail Shvydkoy. This gave an opportunity at the end of March to visit the capitals of Austria and Slovakia – Vienna and Bratislava. This was reported by local news agency APA, citing confirmation from the Austrian Foreign Ministry.
The department explained that a “citizen of Russia” applied to the Austrian embassy in Moscow with a request to issue a visa.
“Since the legal requirements of the visa code have been met and the applicant is not on any EU sanctions list, the visa has been granted,” the ministry said in a statement.
The media said Shvydkoy became “perhaps the highest-ranking Kremlin envoy to go to Austria since the beginning of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine on February 24, 2022.”
In Vienna, Putin’s representative met with members of the Russian community at the Russian Cultural Institute in Vienna. Shvydkoy was later upset that the Austrian officials with whom he had planned the negotiations “cancelled the meeting at the last minute.”
In Slovakia, during the ceremony, Putin’s special envoy met with Prime Minister Robert Fico and Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar.
The granting of the visa to Shvydkoy was seen in diplomatic circles as part of a reciprocity agreement, which stipulates that Austrian officials will also receive Russian visas if necessary, the news agency added.
The media recalled that Austrian Green MP Eva Ernst-Dziedzic once failed in her attempt to obtain a Russian visa to attend the funeral of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow in February 2024.
Earlier, Austria declared two Russian diplomats persona non grata. The country’s Foreign Ministry made this decision after material appeared in local media about their involvement with Russian intelligence.
Source: korrespondent
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