Former Austrian minister goes to live in Russia… and took the ponies on the flight

NAppointed by the far right for Foreign Affairs between December 2017 and May 2019, Karin Kneissl had lived in Lebanon since 2022 and decided to settle in Saint Petersburg to assume the presidency of a new university think tank.

The investigative website ‘The Insider’ reported on Tuesday the flight that Karin Kneissl took last week with her ponies between the Hmeimim base, in Syria, and Saint Petersburg airport.

The 58-year-old former minister tried to justify herself today, saying it was “impossible [para si] driving a truck through Syria taking into account the circumstances of the war”, he explained to the France Presse news agency.

“Due to the sanctions, there are no flights or (transport) services from DHL”, he also clarified on the social network Telegram, expressing surprise at the fact that “his move is becoming a political issue”.

Karin Kneissl made headlines in 2018 when she invited the Russian president to her wedding, while she was responsible for Austrian diplomacy, during which they danced a waltz.

The media close to the Kremlin published the images, which went around the world, of the bride waltzing with the Russian president, whom she treated with deep reverence.

Following her departure from government, Karin Kneissl joined the Board of Directors of Russian oil giant Rosneft in 2021, a position she left in May 2022, following the invasion of Ukraine.

Very controversial in her country, Karin Kneissl moved to France in September 2020, however, she claims to have been pressured to leave and then temporarily settled in a small village in Lebanon.

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