Kneissl was an Austrian minister throughout a time when Austria moved dangerously near Russia. She is now on trip within the Russian city of Petrushovo and offers lectures at a Russian political middle.
A number of Russian web sites have launched a video wherein former Austrian International Minister Karin Kneissl, wearing a blue skirt and white belted shirt, extols the charms of the Russian city of Petrushovo at a neighborhood summer time celebration.
“That is my world,” he advised a bunch of Russian kids, insisting he feels at house among the many “chickens, geese and goats” of the city in Ryazan Oblast, southeast of Moscow.
“I lived in a small city in Austria,” he continued, talking in Russian.
Russian media quoted her as saying she booked her keep for a month and can determine what she does “after that” and declined to say what her plans have been for the long run.
“I like being right here, this city may be very lovely. I began to work, to proceed educating and studying, to jot down my books, to study the language. I needed to depart my outdated life, begin over, and at 60 it’s not straightforward “He advised the native press.
Based on the Austrian press, his e-book will cope with the present political state of affairs in Europe.
Embraced by Putin
Kneissl was Austria’s international minister between 2017 and 2019, and made headlines when she invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to her marriage ceremony in 2018, at a ceremony held within the city of Gamlitz.
He danced with Putin and bowed deeply on the marriage ceremony, a transfer extensively criticized resulting from his excessive place within the Austrian authorities on the time and criticism of Putin within the West over human rights abuses and allegations of Russian meddling. within the US elections.
When a vote of no confidence ousted the federal government of Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz, the journalist left her political publish and commenced collaborating with the Russian authorities information channel RT, previously Russia Right now.
The media claimed that she had been appointed to the board of administrators of Rosneft, an oil refining and distribution firm, in 2021.
Though he initially rejected US intelligence experiences that the Kremlin was planning an invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, he subsequently resigned from Rosneft in Could final yr.
Since then, she continues to look at Russian-led or supported worldwide conferences and boards, such because the Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg in July, and has claimed to really feel like a “political refugee.”
Russia’s fellow vacationers in Europe
Kneissl is usually in comparison with former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who after leaving authorities as a profitable Social Democrat chief in 2005 spent most of his time working or lobbying for Russia’s greatest corporations together with Gazprom, Rosneft and NordStream AG.
Whereas Austria has largely severed its relationship with Kneissl, Schröder stays a member of Germany’s Social Democratic Celebration, which is at the moment a part of the nation’s ruling coalition led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Scholz has led one of the necessary adjustments in German coverage in direction of Russia and has supported the provision of weapons to Ukraine, together with Leopard tanks.
After the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Ukraine, Schröder was disadvantaged of his privileges as a former German politician, comparable to workplaces and employees in Berlin. Schröder filed a lawsuit towards the Bundestag to have these providers reinstated.
Different European leaders, such because the not too long ago deceased former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, typically find yourself on Putin’s mailing listing, receiving official Christmas and New 12 months greetings from the Kremlin.
Based on an announcement from a St. Petersburg college, Kneissl will head the newly created GORKI middle, which is reportedly brief for “Geopolitical Observatory for Key Russian Points,” and can mix “educational potential with…expertise in diplomatic exercise.
