Former Austrian FM Kneissl links anti-Russian sentiment to Habsburg-Tsarist rivalry

VIENNA, June 4. /TASS/. The anti-Russian hysteria in present-day Austria stems from the political rivalry between the Habsburgs and Russian tsars, former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl said at the presentation of the German-language edition of her book titled Requiem for Europe.

The event took place at the Russian Embassy in Vienna on June 2, with the expert participating via video link.

"I must confess: I did not realize how strong and deep this hatred toward Russia is. I made an attempt to explore the topic only when I myself became a target of such projections of this hatred. I have always reiterated that 2022 was not when things started. Everything has much deeper roots. The attitude to Russia varies from capital to capital and has a historical explanation," Kneissl argued in a video record of her speech seen by TASS. "I think, in Vienna, it is explained, among other reasons, with the long antagonism between the Catholic monarchy of the Habsburgs and the Russian Orthodox Tsarism," she added.

Kneissl cited her research into a situation when Ivan III, Grand Prince of Moscow, ruled to proclaim himself a tsar which she said posed a certain challenge to the Habsburg empire. "This confrontation between the Orthodox Russia and the Catholic Austria, once the Holy Roman empire, manifested itself most strongly in Southeast Europe where World War I erupted later," she continued. "During the Balkan wars of the early 20th century, Russia was blamed for everything here too. And the Russian issue today is a topic around which these ideas based on the `either-or-else’ principle emerge," the former top diplomat concluded.