Foreign Minister Attends Economic Forum in St. Petersburg

Fact

Between 2005 and 2010, Kneissl was an independent local councilor on the list of The Austrian People’s Party. As an expert in international law, history of the Middle East and the energy market, Kneissl taught at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, the European Business School in Rheingau, and was a guest lecturer at several universities. She was nominated by FPÖ as a non-party member for the post of Foreign Minister of Austria in the government of Sebastian Kurz. In 2019, after a vote of no confidence ended the First Kurz government, she left political office. She was later appointed by the Russian Government to the Board of Directors of the state gas company Rosneft, a position she held until the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to text messages she sent to a Washington Post reporter, she had emigrated from Austria because of “death threats.”