Footnote: Austro-Covidian Chancellor Nehammer claims Putin is 'the first in history to use gas as a weapon'

A hasty remark spoken to Austro-Covidian legacy media while attending the UN General Assembly, Mr. Nehammer reveals his ignorance

Sidenote: due to heavy teaching obligations, this week saw fewer postings than I’d liked. This is also a brief one, but it shows how deranged Austro-Covidian ‘leaders’ are by now…

So the background is this year’s UN General Assembly, which is a wonderful time of the year for Austrian politicians to waste taxpayer money and spend some time in NYC each year. (Personally, I had the ‘pleasure’ of attending the official reception back in 2018 when I was teaching at Columbia, hence I not only know about this event, but I participated in the wasteful spending part, too.)

Many legacy media outlets report the below in unison (surprise /sarcasm), but the below paragraph is taken from reporting by the Wiener Zeitung, one of the country’s oldest newspapers and owned by the government—it’s the official government publication outlet (my emphases):

Speaking to Austrian media at UN headquarters, Nehammer said: ‘Sanctions must not weaken us more than those to whom they are meant to apply.’ In general, the Chancellor said: ‘Sanctions are the most peaceful way to protest against war and suffering and to show that things cannot go on like this.’ The war in Ukraine had been triggered by Russia. Moreover, Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘changed the conditions by using gas as a weapon of war for the first time in history.’ Something like this had not even happened in the times of the Soviet Union, the Chancellor added.

Also, note that the same statements were covered by virtually all other legacy media outlets, such as the Kurier (here), online outlet Vienna.at (here), or Puls24 (here)

But perhaps before the Soviet Union came into existence?

You know, during the First World War (1914-19) around 100,000 fatalities and around 1.2 wounded were due to the widespread use of poison gas; by the way, Adolf Hitler, while serving on the western front, was among those who were wounded in late 1918.

Austria-Hungary itself used copious amounts of poison gas along the southern front against Italy.

And, while the Soviet Union existed, we could perhaps further contextualise the use of gas as weapon against concentration camp inmates by Nazi Germany.

I suppose that Mr. Nehammer could use some history lessons?