Karin Kneissl is working for Moscow to “harm Austria,” a liberal pro-EU party has claimed
A liberal pro-EU party has put forward the proposal that former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl should have her citizenship revoked for “working” for Moscow. Kneissl, who moved to Russia in 2023, has frequently criticized the EU.
The New Austria and Liberal Forum (NEOS) has accused Kneissl of damaging Austria’s image at Moscow’s behest. Its members also criticized the former diplomat for heading a think tank in Russia and appearing on the news outlet RT.
“In the service of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin… at the Russian Economic Institute or as a columnist on RT, a channel banned in Austria, Kneissl is symbolically spreading just one message: Austria is the anteroom to hell, Putin’s Russia is the Garden of Eden. Anyone who thinks these appearances are voluntary and done out of pure altruism also believes in Father Frost,” Yannick Shetty, the head of the NEOS faction in parliament, told the Kronen Zeitung on Monday.
The Austrian Citizenship Act does permit the state to strip a person of citizenship if they ‘significantly damage the interests or reputation of the Republic’ while serving a foreign state.
However, former Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg previously stated that such a measure would not be legally feasible in Kneissl’s case. He has previously rejected similar calls to strip her of citizenship. The former diplomat herself also maintained that she couldn’t be rendered stateless as she has no other citizenship.
Lawyer Balazs Esztegar told the Austrian Profil Magazine that the procedure to revoke citizenship is mostly reserved for those accused of espionage, which would be ‘difficult to prove’ in Kneissl’s case.
In Russia, Kneissl heads the think tank GORKI (Geopolitical Observatory for Russia’s Key Issues). She has also contributed to RT. The former diplomat bemoaned the EU’s over-reliance on US energy supplies, describing it as an ‘ideological’ attempt to replace inexpensive Russian oil and gas. She has also recently made critical comments about Austria while appearing on several YouTube podcasts, provoking the anger of domestic politicians.