Austria refused to expel Russian diplomats over the so-called Skripal case as it traditionally maintains good relations with Russia and is the headquarters for international organizations where diplomats hold dialogue on a daily basis, Austrian Chancellor Sebasitan Kurz said, TASS reports.
"One third of EU countries did not expel Russian diplomats and we were among them. Together with the foreign minister, I made a decision not to do this [expel diplomats] as we traditionally maintain good relations with Russia and are a neutral country and act as the headquarters for many international organizations such as [the office] of the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe," he said.
"Every day hundreds of diplomats hold talks in Vienna, on a neutral territory, and we develop our role on building bridges. We could have made another decision, there are different arguments, but I think we made the right decision," Kurz told a talk show broadcast on Puls4 TV.
Kurz noted that Austria along with other EU member-states had decided to recall an EU ambassador to Moscow for consultations in Brussels. "By this gesture we condemned Russia and showed solidarity with the United Kingdom," he noted.