OREANDA-NEWS. The scandal that flared up in Austria over the video, in which Vice Chancellor Heinz Christian Strache speaks with a woman who identified herself as Alena Makarova, “doesn't have and cannot have anything to do” with Russia, said Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov. According to him, it was not established that the woman in the video is a Russian woman.

“I cannot regard the appearance of this video in any way, because it does not apply to the Russian Federation, or to the president, or to the government. We do not know for certain who this woman is, whether she is Russian, whether she is Russian, ”said a Kremlin spokesman.

Earlier, the German media published excerpts from the Heinz-Christian Strache meeting with the alleged Russian woman. They met in Ibiza in 2017, before he became vice chancellor. According to media reports, at the meeting, Mr. Strache discussed with Mrs. Makarova the opportunity to provide him with material assistance in the parliamentary elections in exchange for the purchase of 50% of the Austrian Kronen Zeitung. The vice-chancellor has already resigned. Against the background of the scandal, Austrian Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen called for holding early parliamentary elections. The Austrian prosecutor's office stated that it did not find the corpus delicti on the video from Heinz Christian Strache.

The German Die Welt pointed out that the videotaped meeting was a “trap” for the politician, who, together with his Austrian Freedom Party, was speaking out for lifting anti-Russian sanctions and normalizing relations with Moscow. Strache, who also called the situation a trap and a targeted political assassination, was forced to resign. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurtz refused to continue the government coalition with the Strache party and announced early parliamentary elections.