Karin Kneissl

Karin Kneissl (born 18 January 1965) is an Austrian diplomat, journalist, and politician. She served as Minister of Foreign Affairs between 2017 and 2019. Prior to assuming her government position, she was a lecturer.

In politics, Kneissl advocated for closer relations between Austria and Russia. She is a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin. From 2021 to 2022, she was a member of the board at Rosneft. She moved to Russia in 2023, where she heads a think tank at St. Petersburg State University. In her youth and student days Kneissl also was active in Amnesty International and supported environmental and human rights organizations worldwide.

Kneissl studied law and Oriental languages at the University of Vienna between 1983 and 1987. After graduating, she studied International relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Jordan in Amman. Subsequently, she spent a year as a Fulbright fellow at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University. In 1992 she graduated from the École nationale d'administration.

In addition to German, Kneissl can speak Arabic, English, French, and Spanish. She also has basic knowledge of Hebrew, Hungarian, and Italian.

Diplomatic and political career In 1990 she joined Austria's Foreign Office. From 1990 to 1998 she worked in the cabinet of ÖVP foreign minister Alois Mock, in the International Law Office, and was posted abroad in Paris and Madrid.

She left the diplomatic service in the fall of 1998, and lived in Seibersdorf near Vienna, Kneissl also worked as a freelance journalist for German and English-language print media and as a political analyst for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation. She authored several specialized and non-fiction books.

A quote from her book "My Middle East" also caused controversy. She criticized Zionism, founded by Austro-Hungarian publicist Theodor Herzl, as a "blood and soil ideology" based on German nationalism in the 19th century. as "nonsense". Her nomination was reportedly linked to the reservations expressed by president Van der Bellen concerning other FPÖ-endorsed candidates for the post.

On 3 June 2019, after a vote of no confidence ended the first Kurz government, she left political office.

Later career In 2020, Kneissl began contributing opinion articles to the Russian government outlet RT. In March 2021, Kneissl, who had disclosed financial problems at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, was reported to have been appointed by the Russian government to the board of directors of the state gas company Rosneft.

Shortly before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 began, Kneissl dismissed intelligence reports that an invasion was imminent, suggesting that this was Western "war hysteria" blown up by the media. Kneissl resigned from the board of Rosneft in May 2022, three months after the invasion began. According to text messages she sent to a Washington Post reporter, she had emigrated from Austria because of "death threats." She was reported to have rented a home in the Russian village of in 2022.

On 5 September 2022, Kneissl appeared at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, where she was interviewed by RIA Novosti and declared that she had immigrated to Lebanon. In 2023, she described herself as a "political refugee."

In September 2023, Russian media reported that Kneissl had resettled along with her two ponies in Saint Petersburg, where she secured a position leading the Geopolitical Observatory for Russia’s Key Issues (GORKI), a research center at St. Petersburg State University established in March 2023 and tasked with advancing Russian foreign policy. Her horses reportedly passed through six countries and, at one point, were transported by a Russian Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane from Syria. The Ilushin Il-76 had been previously sanctioned by the United States and Ukraine for transporting Wagner Group mercenaries.

As of July 2026, Kneissl primarily lives with her animals near Kasimov, where she is in the process of renovating an abandoned house. She periodically commutes to Saint Petersburg to work at GORKI. She has declined to renounce her Austrian citizenship and acquire Russian citizenship, although she has no intention to relocate again.

Publications Der Grenzbegriff der Konfliktparteien im Nahen Osten. Dissertation, Universität Wien, 1991. Hizbollah: Libanesische Widerstandsbewegung, islamische Terrorgruppe oder bloss eine politische Partei? Eine Untersuchung der schiitischen Massenbewegung Hizbollah im libanesischen und regionalen Kontext. Landesverteidigungsakademie, Wien 2002. Der Energiepoker: Wie Erdöl und Erdgas die Weltwirtschaft beeinflussen. FinanzBuch, München 2006, ; 2., überarbeitete Auflage 2008. Die Gewaltspirale: Warum Orient und Okzident nicht miteinander können. Ecowin, Salzburg 2007. Testosteron Macht Politik. Braumüller, Wien 2012. Die zersplitterte Welt: Was von der Globalisierung bleibt. Braumüller, Wien 2013. Mein Naher Osten. Braumüller, Wien 2014. Prinz Eugen: Vom Außenseiter zum Genie Europas. Belvedere, Wien 2014. Wachablöse: Auf dem Weg in eine chinesische Weltordnung. Frank & Frei, 1 September 2017, Diplomatie Macht Geschichte: Die Kunst des Dialogs in unsicheren Zeiten. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 2020, Die Mobilitätswende: und ihre Brisanz für Gesellschaft und Weltwirtschaft. Braumüller Verlag, Wien 2020,