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Austria's Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz
Photo: Michael Indra / imago images / SEPA.Media
At the beginning of March, Austria's Chancellor was on a flying visit to Israel.
He flew there with the head of government of Denmark, she picked him up in Vienna on the way there.
We went back with a chartered private plane.
So far, so unspectacular?
In Austria, the process now raises questions.
According to research by the medium "Zack Zack", the rented jet belongs to the corporate empire of an oligarch with a very good network in Viennese political circles (click here for the report).
His name: Dmitrij Firtash.
The businessman is from Ukraine.
There he has been considered a shrewd puller for decades.
So he claimed for himself that he had sponsored the party of boxing world champion Vitali Klitschko, the current mayor of Kiev.
After the Maidan revolution, Firtash apparently negotiated who should run for president in the country: Klitschko resigned after a meeting in Vienna, the billionaire Petro Poroshenko stood.
However, Firtasch has been stuck in Vienna for several years.
He is threatened with arrest in Ukraine.
At the same time, the US is trying to extradite the businessman.
There he is being investigated for bribery.
So far, however, Firtasch's lawyers have been able to prevent Austria from extraditing their clients to the US authorities.
The US investigators are also interested in Firtash because he is considered a key figure in gas deals that have been carried out between Russia and Ukraine over decades.
The Austrian Chancellery presents the trip with the oligarch jet as a routine. It is an “absolutely normal standard procedure to book individual flights through companies like Avcon Jet.
Who owns the respective aircraft is beyond our knowledge and is of no further relevance «.
The »Zack Zack« report, which is published by the former Green politician Peter Pilz, shows a certain closeness between Kurz's conservatives and Firtasch in other places as well.
The oligarch is currently living in the Vienna villa of the major ÖVP donor Alexander Schütz.
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