The former foreign minister sees herself as a political refugee. She does not want to give up her position at the Russian oil company Rosneft.
she is only one of many Austrians who maintained good relations with Russia, but Vladimir Putin himself only danced at her wedding. The close ties to the Russian President are now causing difficulties for former Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl: “I had to flee, I didn’t leave voluntarily,” she said in an interview for the German broadcaster RTL+. Namely in a village in southern France.
Kneissl gives the “many hostilities” as the reason for her change of location and that there is a “de facto ban on working” in Austria. After all, there are no more flights to Moscow. After protests, Kneissl also had to give up her position as vice president of “Strateg”, the society for political-strategic studies. “I never thought in my life that I would really have to give up everything I’ve built up,” says the 56-year-old.
Kneissl has been on the supervisory board of the Russian state oil company Rosneft since summer 2021 (as has former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder). In any case, she does not want to give up the post, says Kneissl in the interview. “I’m under a lot of pressure in that direction. My life is already destroyed.”
She does not regret Putin’s invitation to her wedding, and even now, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she sees no reason to distance herself from Putin, the report says. She didn’t have much more than his favor.
>> To the RTL+ broadcast (Kneissl interview from minute 44:00)
(red.)