MOSCOW. March 12 (Interfax) - Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl has said she is not expecting last year's spy scandal to affect bilateral relations with Russia.
"As regards relations between our countries, today it was perfectly clear that we are able to distinguish one thing from another and that we are trying to discuss problems and deal with them together," Kneissl said at a press conference following a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Tuesday.
"We aim at diplomacy, mutual visits, and interaction," she said.
The Austrian media said on November 9 that a retired Austrian army colonel was suspected of spying for Russia. The newspaper Kronen Zeitung said, citing unnamed sources, that the colonel was paid about 300,000 euros for the intelligence he had collected. The suspect was taken into custody on November 30. The Austrian foreign minister postponed her visit to Russia, initially planned for the end of last year, in this connection.