[HIGHLIGHTS] New Austria chats: Strache is said to have facilitated meetings with Putin's officials

New Austria chats: Strache is said to have facilitated meetings with Putin's officials. The right-wing authoritarian FPÖ maintained a particularly close relationship with the party of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Chats that have now come to light in an investigative committee of the Austrian Parliament are said to show that Strache wanted to organize a meeting between young officials from the two countries in 2019 at Russia's request. Fears that the party could be Putin's long arm are not new. In the run-up to a secret affair, even the then German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed concerns about it.