Karin Kneissl is working for Moscow to “damage Austria”, a liberal pro-European party has claimed
Former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl should be stripped of her citizenship “working” proposed by a liberal pro-European party for Moscow. Kneissl, who moved to Russia in 2023, has often criticized the EU.
The New Austria and Liberal Forum (NEOS) accused Kneissl of damaging Austria’s image at the behest of Moscow. Its members also criticized the former diplomat for leading a think tank in Russia and appearing on RT news.
“IN [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s service… in the Russian Economic Institute or as a columnist on RT, a channel banned in Austria, Kneissl symbolically spreads only one message: Austria is the vestibule of hell, Putin’s Russia is the Garden of Eden. Anyone who believes that these performances are voluntary and done out of pure altruism also believes in Father Frost.” Yannick Shetty, head of the NEOS faction in parliament, told Kronen Zeitung on Monday.
Austria’s Citizenship Act allows the state to strip a person of their citizenship if they do “significantly harm the interests or reputation of the Republic” while serving a foreign state.
However, former Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg previously stated that such a move would not be legally possible in Kneissl’s case. He rejected similar requests to strip her of her citizenship in the past. The former diplomat herself also claimed that she could not be stripped of her nationality because she had no other citizenship.
Lawyer Balazs Esztegar told Austria’s Profil Magazine that the procedure for revoking citizenship is largely reserved for people accused of espionage, which would be “difficult to prove” in the Kneissl houses.
In Russia, Kneissl heads the GORKI (Geopolitical Observatory for Russia’s Key Issues) think tank. She also contributed to RT. The former diplomat lamented the EU’s over-reliance on American energy supplies, calling it an “ideological” efforts to replace cheap Russian oil and gas. She also recently made critical remarks about Austria when she appeared on several YouTube podcasts, drawing the ire of politicians at home.
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