Putin gave jewelry to a former Austrian minister

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

These white gold earrings adorned with sapphires, worth an estimated $55,000, had been donated to Karin Kneissl as a thank you for her wedding invitation in August 2018, according to the Kronen Zeitung newspaper.

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

The media close to the Kremlin published images that went around the world of the bride dancing with the Russian president, to 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.

At first, “a loan agreement had been concluded 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 jewels.

After her departure from government, Kneissl was appointed in June 2021 to the board of directors of Russian oil giant Rosneft, joining former German foreign minister Gerhard Schröder.

Both refuse to abandon their duties despite Russia's invasion of Ukraine, unlike other former European leaders, such as the French 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 the Kremlin's interference in the EU, moved to France in September 2020.

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

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