Russian Efforts To Destabilize Austria Exposed

That the bastard's tentacles reach far beyond Putin puppet Donald "Rump" Trump is broadly known. Now it's on tape:

Turns out Russian collusion isn’t a "witch hunt hoax" after all. At least not in Austria.

The country’s government collapsed on Saturday after Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said he was pulling the plug on his ruling coalition after just 17 months in office.

The move came barely 24 hours after the release of a bombshell video showing Heinz-Christian Strache, the far-right leader of his junior coalition partner, trying to trade public contracts for party donations from a woman he believed to be the wealthy niece of a Russian oligarch. [snip]

The incriminating video triggered the resignation of Strache, the government’s No. 2 official, earlier Saturday.

Given the' gravity of the scandal — in the video Strache offered to exchange lucrative government contracts for campaign donations with a supposed Russian millionaire and discussed how to hide the payments from authorities — Kurz appeared to have concluded that pulling the plug was the only way he could shield his own party from the affair. [snip]

The Freedom Party has a formal partnership with Vladimir Putin’s political party, but has repeatedly denied working to further Russian interests in Austria.

Now, does this sound familiar:

... Freedom Party officials repeatedly confirmed those fears over the past 17 months with aggressive anti-asylum policies and by poisoning Austria’s political discourse with overtly racist rhetoric.

The Freedom Party’s provocations included flirtations with the identitarian movement and regular attacks on journalists, whom Strache labeled as "the biggest whores on the planet" in the leaked video.  (our emphasis)

Right- wing parties around the globe are being supported by the malicious Russian autocrat, with the approval of our own would- be autocrat (see Orban and Bolsonaro for starters).  This is just a reminder that the neo- fascist malignancy isn't confined to any one country.  It's a truly global struggle that we must begin to turn the tide by winning against it here in the United States.

(Image:  Jon Berkeley, The Economist, London)