MOSCOW, May 23. /TASS/. Moscow has no information about maintaining informal communication channels with Austrian authorities, according to a commentary by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova published on Tuesday.

Earlier, Austrian Minister for European and International Affairs Alexander Schallenberg said that Vienna had been maintaining unofficial contacts with Russia.

"We were surprised to find out that Vienna, as it turns out, maintains informal communication channels with Russian authorities. We are unaware of them," the diplomat said. Zakharova also noted that there are no subjects for an informal dialogue between Moscow and Vienna. "Austria, by unequivocally taking the side of the West’s hostile policy with regard to Russia, has lost its previously independent role in foreign affairs having cast aside neutrality principles," she added.