Funny how the two most pro-Russian EU countries, Hungary and Austria, are the ones suffering the worst inflation despite continuing to trade with Russia.
The only parts of the countries doing well are Budapest and Vienna that are both controlled by opposition parties.
Cant talk about Hungary but in Austria the reason is the incredibly broad and untargeted financial assistance for everybody because of the energy crisis and covid.
The reason for this is technical incompetence and cowardice of the government. They could not have done something better even if they wanted and they fear the voters far too much to let some hurt go through the system.
I am no rich antigovernment libertarian but there can be no surprise that all those measures
But how does this concretely affect supermarkets? They presumably didn't raise wages, they didn't have to pay more for their wares(at least not at the level they raised their prices at, after all they have probably long-term contracts at generous oligopoly conditions) and their electricity bill is maybe at most 10% of their cost. This is purely extortion.
Just to reiterate, my electricity bill last year went down from 1k to about 650Eur because of some aid or another while I am sure some family cant afford basic necessities.
They don’t. We’re far away both from the previous and upcoming winter. Are you saying that during winter Austria is going to be doing worse than others?
Don't think so. The storage capacities in Austria are rather big compared to other countries. In contrast to last year the gas storage facilities are already filled to the brim.
Both Hungary and Austria are still buying huge amounts of gas from Russia (Austria: 71%, Hungary: 80-85%) and also oil in Hungary's case (80%)[0]. Meanwhile, other European countries had to look for more expensive alternatives. One of the main reasons given for inflation in those countries was the energy crisis. What's the reason in Austria & Hungary?
Pro-Russian right-wing parties in Europe are blaming inflation on our sanctions on Russia. If that was the case Hungary and Austria would not be the the countries that are worst affected by inflation.
First, I wouldn't say that Austria is pro-Russian. Neither official politics, nor the majority of the people (with the notable exception of the infamous FPÖ).
Then, it's mostly about infrastructure. While the western parts of the country have broad access to renewable energy, like hydropower, the eastern parts heavily depend on natural gas, with not much of an alternative as far as infrastructure goes.
We may also point out the questionable wisdom of EU politics, announcing prematurely the exit out of then predominant sources of natural gas without having any alternatives already secured or even at hand, nor the bigger infrastructure being able to handle any routes alternative to the established ones at scale, while having a deregulated energy market at the same time. With predictable outcome… (Talk boldly and carry a small twig, as they say.) Some countries are impacted by this more than others, with regard to their traditional energy mix and local climate. (Countries and regions with a continental climate are impacted more than others.)
Bruh, that's old news. She now moved to St. Petersburg to work for the Russian government and the Russian air-force had to fly her ponies in too (because that's what you use your airforce for in times of war). It sounds like an Onion article but it's real.
Notably, this happened before any of these events, and to help you with Austrian history, the entire "family" has been since dismissed. (Kneissl is now a blogger in Russia, far from Austria or its politics.)
This is in historical context rather ridiculous. This is actually related to the Gulf War, and Iraq (yay, the Western ally in the greater region) formerly prominently supplying Austrian demand. With sanctions and then the war, Austria was looking for alternative sources and settled on Russia, which offered long-term guarantees and has thus stepped into the role of the most prominent supplier, since. (I actually do remember the then federal minister stepping in front of TV cameras and declaring supplies secured, thanks to this "historic deal".) In hindsight, this is more a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire. Not that there hadn't been internal and external pressure to do anything about this, but, as infrastructure had developed, there was – and still is – not much of an alternative. Mind that some German natural gas storage is located in Austria and is supplied by the same sources, as well.
This is tied to those days of the coalition of the conservative party with the FPÖ, which terminated on Mai 28, 2019 (which is significantly before 2022), with strong positions of the FPÖ in the entire security apparatus (including some infights with strongholds of the conservative party in these institutions, related court cases ongoing). Kneissl left already before this, in early June 2019.
The FPÖ had actually signed a cooperation agreement with Putin's party "United Russia" in 2016, which is not to terminate before 2026.
Austria and Vienna in particular as a "playground for spies" is something entirely different and goes back to the days even before the Cold War era. Austria has, like many other countries, only laws against espionage which is against its own interests. So espionage against an other country has been perfectly legal. This also served a vital function in the Cold War era, where Austria, also after WWII a neutral country and explicitly so as a buffer between blocks, played a bridging role and was a crucial exchange. However, most of this espionage was actually what we would now call open source intelligence and it was really more a matter of proximity to the places of actual interest.
(On the other hand, the Austrian military intelligence has some agreements of cooperation with the NSA and won't report to parliament on the matter, while the latter still has official oversight. As citizens, we can only guess. So, I wouldn't say that this is particularly lopsided in favour of any Eastern interests. Moreover, Austria installed a law, which fines relaying any Russian sources by up to EUR 50,000, rather early on in the conflict.)
>the Austrian military intelligence has some agreements of cooperation with the NSA
Same with Australia, whose people are also unable to gain oversight over their militarys' activities.
The more the "mah' Russia!" crowd bleat, the more it looks like we've actually manifested the very apparatus the Soviets' would have implemented, too, were they still around ..
The situation in Austria is fundamentally different than in Hungary.
In Hungary the government kept prices of energy and food down by law for quite some time when everywhere else prices where rising. What they see now is the catch-up effect after those restrictions fell.
I actually do not know what is the reason why the Austrian inflation is still that high. Energy prices as are like before covid, but food prices keep climbing. Maybe because the largest retailers Billa and Spar have almost 70% of the total market share they can do what they want (with the clients and the producers)
I guess we also have to wait for one or two years that real estate/rent prices start going down for real (real estate prices are almost stagnating now, but rents are still rising). That may have a real impact on inflation.
The Austrian inflation problem is easily answered: wage inflation (collective bargaining agreements), paired with high gas costs, paired with many inflation linked contracts such as rents. Many of these feed back into the inflation basked and just make inflation quite sticky.
I cannot judge what "EU average" is. I can only tell you that the gas price that a household customer pays today is still twice than it was before this crisis and that is reflected in wholesale prices if you compare the cost of gas in Austria compared to 2020 and earlier.
I guess what he meant was that big retailers colluded to increase prices simultaneously together in lock-step for no reason other than greed and profiteering, and simply blamed it on the Russo-Ukrainian war as being the reason for prices exploding.
I believe the OP was referring to Far-right, pro-Russia parties getting their 'come-uppance' by the rest of the world, but I'd really like to know more details about that.
Not that I doubt that big corporations would use the Russia excuse whenever/wherever they can - I mean, who wouldn't - but I'd just like to see the details that tie the inflation to support of Russia a bit more clearly laid out.
Nothing to do with being pro-Russia. EU farmers themselves were against duty-free imports of cheap Ukrainian foodstuffs because unfair competition to them which they can't compete against.
The only parts of the countries doing well are Budapest and Vienna that are both controlled by opposition parties.