The former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria spoke about her move to Russia with a pony

The ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria moved to Russia – Karin Kneissl shared some details about this publicly the other day.

Former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl says she is moving to Russia to head the think tank she created at St. Petersburg University, The Guardian writes.

Former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl gained worldwide fame in 2018 for dancing with Russian President Vladimir Putin at her wedding. Now she has moved to St. Petersburg – along with her ponies, which were delivered by transport plane.

Karin Kneissl served as Austrian Foreign Minister from 2017 to 2019, nominated for this post by the right-wing Freedom Party (FPÖ).

In 2018, Karin Kneissl, then foreign minister of neutral Austria, made headlines when she invited Putin to her wedding, The Guardian recalls. The move drew widespread criticism in the West just months after some EU countries – with the exception of Austria – expelled dozens of Russian diplomats in response to the nerve agent poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.

As The Guardian points out, the 58-year-old politician left the Austrian government the following year. A highly controversial figure in her own country, Kneissl moved to France in September 2020 and became a guest columnist for Russia Today.

In a Telegram post on Wednesday, Karin Kneissl expressed surprise that her move to Russia had become “political” and said she moved her “books, clothes and ponies from Marseille to Beirut via DHL” in June 2022 after her “ expelled” from France.

But Lebanon proved to be only a temporary solution, she said, so Karin Kneissl traveled to Russia every six weeks for work, where she is now setting up a think tank.

“Due to sanctions, there are no flights or DHL [для переезда в Россию], – wrote the ex-minister. “So I had the opportunity to accompany a Russian transport flight from Syria to Russia, for which I am very grateful.”

In June, The Guardian recalls, Karin Kneissl presented the Gorki Center, an analytical center at St. Petersburg University that will work under her leadership. The think tank was created to “help shape the policies of the Russian Federation” with a focus on the Middle and Central Asian East.

“I co-founded the Gorki center and manage it. Since there is a lot of work there and it requires a lot of attention, I decided to move to St. Petersburg for this work,” Kneissl told the TASS news agency on Tuesday.

In 2021, Kneissl joined the board of directors of a Russian oil corporation, but resigned in May 2022, after the European Parliament passed a resolution threatening sanctions against Europeans still serving on the boards of major Russian companies, The Guardian writes.

Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Tuesday, Karin Kneissl criticized Austria’s behavior towards Russia, comparing it to “schizophrenia”: “Austrian politics and public opinion never tire of condemning Russia.”

Meanwhile, as Politico notes, Austria has historical ties with Russia. Although the Alpine country has supported EU sanctions and publicly criticized Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, it maintains commercial ties with Moscow and remains one of the few EU countries that continues to import Russian gas.