One conversation with vodka and Red Bull in a villa on the island of Ibiza, and a promising political career is over. This is the story of Heinz-Christian Strache, who just a few days ago was Austrian Vice Chancellor and leader of the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party (APS).

He was killed in a six-hour conversation with a Russian-speaking woman who introduced herself as Alyona Makarova, the niece of Russian oligarch Igor Makarov.

Over the weekend, two German newspapers - Süddeutsche Zeitung and Spiegel - published excerpts of a video recording of a long conversation between two Austrian politicians and the mysterious "Alena Makarova" and her confidante. On the Austrian side, the leader of the Freedom Party, Heinz-Christian Strache (abbreviated HK, the initials he is known by in Austria), and his friend Johann Gudenus (for his friends, Joshi), a member of the APS leadership, participated in the conversation. Gudenus' wife Tayana was also present.

The Ibizagate, according to German journalists, took place at a certain villa on the Spanish resort island of Ibiza on July 24, 2017. During the conversation, its participants, primarily Strache, drank vodka and energy drink Red Bull, and HC, as usual, smoked a lot.

As Süddeutsche Zeitung journalists explain, "Joshi" Gudenus, who partly acted as an interpreter (he can explain himself in Russian), had met a woman who introduced herself as Alyona Makarova, the niece of a Russian billionaire, a couple of months before the meeting in Ibiza. The Gudenus family owns plots of land in southern Austria, and Makarova expressed a desire to buy one of them - for a price the Austrian politician considered very favorable. It looks like those who organized the whole combination with the "oligarch's niece" knew whom to turn to: Gudenus is considered in the APS the main inspirer of strengthening ties with Russia. At his suggestion, a couple of years ago the party signed a cooperation agreement with United Russia. Both Gudenus and Strache have been to Moscow several times, and they loved it there: in the video from Ibiza, the HC says, "We love Russia! - and laughs gleefully.

Recall that it was the summer of 2017, a couple of months before the parliamentary elections in Austria, where the APS had a good chance of success. (It finally came in second place behind the conservative People's Party of the "wunderkind" of Austrian politics, Sebastian Kurz, and entered into a government coalition with the conservatives.) HC's entire conversation with the mystery lady must be interpreted in this political context.

Strache and Gudenus made a number of exciting commercial offers to their companion. First, she was offered to buy a large stake in Kronen Zeitung, Austria's most popular right-conservative newspaper. The new owner was to use her paper to help the right-wing radicals perform better in the elections. Secondly, Strache expressed his readiness, after coming to power, to provide Makarova's company with a number of lucrative government contracts - among those for which the contractor at the time was the large construction firm Strabag, whose owner Hans-Peter Hasselsteiner is referred to quite harshly several times during the conversation. Finally, Strache discusses with the Russian woman the possibility of financing her party through a shadow scheme - through a friendly NGO. This is a clear violation of Austrian laws, which allow political parties to receive financial support from foreign individuals and legal entities not exceeding 2640 euro.

The most important point: Makarova and her companion say several times during the conversation that the money allegedly held by the "oligarch's niece" is not entirely "clean" from the point of view of the law. Strache and Gudenus are not embarrassed by this and continue to discuss financial projects with the Russian woman. The video abounds with many other colorful episodes. This includes Strache's statements that he would love to see Austria in an alliance not with the "decadent" West, but with Eastern Europe (and, apparently, Russia), where, in his words, "people are still normal. This includes "Joshi", who, when listing the existing sponsors of the Freedom Party, mentions the gun company Glock, while imitating the firing of a gun. It is also a hard-drinking HC whispering in his colleague's ear that the Makarova made an impression on him (after the video was made public, Strache said he apologized to his wife for his "drunken prattle").