The aggressor’s propaganda machine recently announced the arrival in the occupied peninsula of Karin Kneissl, a former Austrian diplomat and a recognized agent of influence for Russian intelligence services.
It was reported that Kneissl “delivered lectures to students” in Yalta and at the so-called “Crimean federal university,” including a talk titled “War and peace for the sake of oil: the case of Russia.”
Notably, Kneissl worked for the Austrian Foreign Ministry from 1989 to 1999, later served as a local councilor, and became Austria’s Foreign Minister in December 2017.
However, a scandal erupted in Austria in November 2018 following the arrest of a retired army colonel on charges of spying for Russia; Kneissl subsequently left the Austrian government in June 2019.
In March 2021, Kneissl was appointed to the board of directors of “Rosneft”, joining Gerhard Schröder, Matthias Warnig, head of “Nord Stream 2 AG”, and Hans-Jörg Rudloff, chairman of “Marcuard Holding”.
After sanctions were imposed on “Rosneft” in March 2022, the Kremlin removed Kneissl from the company and, in 2023, appointed her director of the “Geopolitical Observatory for Russia’s Key Issues” (G.O.R.K.I.) center at St. Petersburg State University.
For the past three years, Kneissl has effectively served as a key mouthpiece for this entity, disseminating the most heinous narratives of Russian propaganda, with a particular focus on oil and gas issues.
At the same time, while sanctions targeting Kneissl personally have been imposed by Ukraine and Canada, G.O.R.K.I. has so far faced no such measures; this situation clearly calls for a review, with sanctions imposed against both this individual and the St. Petersburg-based “Observatory” by all democratic jurisdictions.
