At an internal training event of the Vienna police at the end of June, the subject of Ukraine was discussed. But the courses were, of all people, held by lecturers from the organization “Coordination Council of the Organization of Russian Compatriots” (KSORS), which is loyal to the Kremlin. This association itself published a video of the presentations on Facebook on Monday.
“The outrage is huge,” the Ukrainian embassy in Vienna reacted yesterday. A diplomat complained that state institutions in Austria had given Russians the opportunity to push propaganda. “These are narratives that legitimize killing Ukrainians,” said the diplomat. Because in this Russian representation, all Ukrainians are Nazis and must therefore be “denazified”.
“Subjective Representations”
In order to clarify the background of the seminar, the Ukrainian embassy also sought talks with the responsible authorities. The Federal Police Headquarters in Vienna and the Ministry of the Interior were asked to comment. “The Vienna State Police Headquarters and the Federal Ministry of the Interior distance themselves from the published subjective representations and opinions,” said a spokesman for the Vienna police on Tuesday evening. It was merely “a subjective illustration of individual participants in the event” that did not reflect the point of view of the authorities.
At the seminar, a Russian historian from Luhansk spoke, for example, about the fact that the term “Ukraine” was hardly used in the 17th century and also mentioned a controversial incident, which was also used by the dictator Vladimir Putin in 2014 to justify the annexation of Crimea had used.
“Hatred of the Russians”
Another speaker, a psychologist, dealt with the Ukrainian side’s criticism of a poster by the Vienna Chamber of Commerce showing a Russian-Ukrainian couple and recognized in that criticism the “open emergence” of an “ideology of hatred against the Russians”. The event took place on June 29 at the Vienna State Police Headquarters on Schottenring.
Source: Nachrichten
