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The Austrian press claims that the Vienna visit of the Russian president was scheduled for May. But the visit was postponed due to the irreconcilable positions of the West and Russia regarding the situation in Ukraine. All the formalities were resolved only after the Russian leader’s trip to Normandy, where he met with many Western leaders for the first time after the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis. According to the Austrian Die Presse, Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, as well as the leaders of France and Germany Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel approved the visit.  One must admit that the Austrian authorities are a lot more neutral than many of their Western partners. Despite the fact that Fischer along with everybody in the EU denounced Crimea joining Russia, he later stated that a hard choice between Russia and the West was impossible for Kiev. According to the Austrian president, Ukraine has centuries’ long ties to Russia, which are especially clear in the East of the country, while the Western part leans more towards the economic conversion with the EU. The Austrian leader is convinced that no consensus in the Ukrainian society is possible if exclusively one path is chosen.

Earlier, prior to the referendum in Crimea, Fischer warned his European colleagues of the danger of new sanctions against Russia. In his opinion, the correct policy should be based on geography and history; it should put together both economic ties with Russia and Europe. As Austrian political analysts point out, Austria itself is very interested in Russian money. Russia is very important for the Austrian economy: significant amount of Russian capital has been invested in Vienna and the territory around the capital. In general the volume of trade between the two countries last year reached 7.5 billion euro.

Besides his colleague Heinz Fischer the Russian president will meet with Austria’s Federal Chancellor Werner Faymann. Vladimir Putin will discuss with his joint projects. Naturally, the main issue is the destiny of the South Stream pipeline. Gazprom and the Austrian oil company OMV signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the implementation of the South Stream project on Austria’s territory back on April 29. Unlike other participants, Vienna has not taken any steps to review the agreement with Russia in connection with the Third Energy Package. However, naturally, there is pressure put on Austria, not only by the European Commission, but also by Washington. The US plans to force the European Commission to block South Stream and, as it puts it, "decrease the dependency of the European markets on the Russian gas" by increasing the supply of imported shale gas from America.

Speaking of Washington, it considers Vladimir Putin’s invitation to Vienna to be "a wrong signal at the wrong time" – it supposedly indirectly justifies Moscow’s actions in Ukraine. Poland and the Baltic countries are of the same opinion. However, Austria not being a NATO member back in the Cold War years performed the intermediary function between the USSR and the West. Political analysts even called it "bridge builder".

Thus, experts don’t exclude that Vienna once again could be chosen as a broker between Brussels and Moscow. Analysts are convinced that the talks will not be "ourely bilateral" – they will be translated to the other European capitals. There is some hope that the European capitals will understand Austria’s pragmatic position and will finally listen to Moscow’s arguments.