The mood was good when Vladimir Putin came to Vienna in June 2014. The sky was blue, the carpet red, Crimea just annexed. The flags of the Ukrainian and Chechen demonstrators were out of sight for the state guest.
Instead, the red-white-red military brass band played in the Hofburg. The then Federal President Heinz Fischer received Putin like a friend. The Chamber of Commerce joked. Its President at the time, Christoph Leitl, emphasized his repeated re-election as head of the chamber. Putin interrupted him and said: “dictatorship”. Break. Postscript: “But good dictatorship.” People laughed.
