Putin gave jewelry to a former Austrian minister

The Austrian press revealed on Thursday the existence of jewelry donated by Russian President Vladimir Putin to a former minister appointed by the far right in 2017, goods that are now in Austrian coffers.

These white gold sapphire earrings, valued at $55,000, were given to Karin Kneissl as a thank you for her wedding invitation in August 2018, according to the Kronen Zeitung newspaper.

Appointed by the far-right FPÖ party to lead Austrian diplomacy — where she remained between December 2017 and May 2019 — Kneissl invited Putin to his wedding while his country held the rotating presidency of the European Union (EU).

Media close to the Kremlin released images that went around the world of the bride dancing with the Russian president, before whom she bowed.

The jewels in question are now in the reserves of the Austrian state, which recovered them in February 2020, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told AFP.

Initially, “a loan agreement was reached with Kneissl in November 2019", but later the former minister “announced that she would not be able to meet the terms of the contract” and returned the jewelry.

After leaving the government, Kneissl was appointed in June 2021 to the board of directors of the Russian oil giant Rosneft, joining former German Foreign Minister Gerhard Schröder.

Both refuse to give up their posts despite Russia's invasion of Ukraine, unlike other former European leaders, such as the Frenchman François Fillon or the Italian Matteo Renzi, who resigned from Russian companies.

The former Austrian official, explicitly mentioned in a European Parliament report as an example of Kremlin interference in the EU, moved to France in September 2020.

In a response to AFP, he confirmed that these gifts had belonged “to the Republic since August 2018, as required by law.”

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