LETTER FROM VIENNA
“You see how they howl, those Ukrainian pigs, they’ve been brainwashed by the Satanist West that has been trying to divide Russia for two hundred years. » This is the type of speech that could be heard in the heart of Vienna, Monday, May 9, on the occasion of the commemorations of the liberation of Europe by the Red Army in 1945. Victor, a 63-year-old chemist who lives in Austria for thirty years, however says that he came with his son simply to participate in the local version of the “immortal regiment”, this Russian procession consisting in parading while brandishing the portrait of an ancestor who died during the Second World War.
Gathered in front of Saint-Etienne Cathedral, there were several hundred Russians waving Russian nationalist or Soviet flags, to support without hesitation “the military operation” in Ukraine, even if the subject was avoided at the podium. In front of them, several dozen Ukrainians tried to disrupt the commemoration, while the majority of passers-by could not help but watch this procession with bewilderment, even with outright disapproval. “Putin asshole”shouted some, “Ukrainian whores”, answered the others, under the protection of an Austrian police force which showed itself very docile with the Russian security service. In a leaflet distributed to passers-by, the Russians warned that it was forbidden “to whistle” or even from ” to jump “because “it is a practice of neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine”.
Like all the capitals of Central Europe liberated by the Red Army in 1945, Vienna certainly had to deal on Monday with the traditional Russian commemorations of May 9 in the midst of the Ukrainian war. But the Austrian position was particularly difficult to maintain for a country which cannot give the impression of criticizing the liberators of Nazism, which always wants to be “military neutral” and which has long maintained close ties with Moscow. To prevent Russian nationalist rallies, pro-Ukrainian activists had wisely declared that they wanted to occupy the gigantic Red Army memorial on the outskirts of the city center on Sunday 8 and Monday 9.
Although disinvited from the various official commemorations of the Second World War, the Russian ambassador, accompanied by representatives of a handful of countries formerly satellites of the USSR (Belarus, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Armenia, etc.), nevertheless managed to lay a wreath under heavy police protection. Several dozen pro-Ukrainian activists were kept at bay. “We had reserved the location; but the Austrian police told us that we could not use it on May 9 in the morning. They did this under pressure from Russia.denounces Andry Karioti, a Ukrainian sports student established for several years in Vienna and leader of the movement.
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