Austrian MPs want to strip ex-foreign minister of citizenship over Russia ties

Karin Kneissl is working for Moscow to “harm Austria,” a liberal pro-EU party has claimed

Former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl should have her citizenship revoked for “working” for Moscow, a liberal pro-EU party has proposed. Kneissl, who moved to Russia in 2023, has often criticized the EU.

The New Austria and Liberal Forum (NEOS) has accused Kneissl of harming Austria’s image upon Moscow’s behest. Its members also criticized the former diplomat over heading a think tank in Russia and appearing on news outlet RT.

“In [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s service… at the Russian Economic Institute or as a columnist on RT, a channel banned in Austria, Kneissl is symbolically spreading only one message: Austria is the antechamber to hell, Putin’s Russia is the Garden of Eden. Anyone who believes that these appearances are voluntary and done out of pure altruism also believes in Father Frost,” the head of the NEOS faction in the parliament, Yannick Shetty, told the Kronen Zeitung on Monday.

Read more

The Austrian Citizenship Act does allow 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 step would not be legally possible in Kneissl’s case. He has in the past rejected similar demands to strip her of citizenship. The former diplomat herself also maintained she could not be made stateless since she has no other citizenship.

Lawyer Balazs Esztegar told the Austrian Profil Magazine that the procedure to revoke citizenship is largely 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 made contributions to RT. The former diplomat lamented the EU’s overreliance on US energy supplies, calling it an “ideological” effort to replace inexpensive Russian oil and gas. She has also recently made critical remarks about Austria while appearing on several YouTube podcasts, drawing the ire of politicians at home.