Heinz-Christian Strache, Freedom Party leader, and Norbert Hofer, the candidate who narrowly lost Austria’s presidential election earlier this month, signed a “working agreement” on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party, according to a statement from the Freedom Party. The statement also said Strache visited New York last month to meet with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s nominated national security advisor, Michael Flynn. Trump team did not immediately respond to Foreign Policy’s request for comment.
Strache in the statement called the Freedom Party a “neutral and reliable mediator and partner” to mend ties with the United States and Russia. He said he hoped to broker an end to the “harmful and ultimately useless sanctions” the United States and European Union slapped on Russia after the onset of the Ukraine crisis in 2014.
The Russian and Austrian parties pledged to exchange their respective experience conducting “legislative activity,” according to Austrian newspaper Der Standard, which obtained a copy of the working agreement.
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