Kneissl was homeless

“I survived on the streets with the dogs”

Karin Kneissl lives close to nature in Russia and now speaks in an interview about the difficult times she has faced.(Bild: Krone-Collage/Vovan and Lexus, KarinKneisslofficial)

Karin Kneissl has often told Austria how much she values her new home, Russia, and how accepted and welcome she feels there. But that may not always have been the case: In an interview, the former foreign minister speaks for the first time about how difficult her life was after emigrating. At times, she says, she may not even have had a roof over her head.

August 2023: In sweltering heat, Kneissl arrives in a village not far from the Russian city of Kasimov in a rental car, with only two suitcases and two dogs in tow. There, she spots a goat that, as she would later learn, is named “Manja.” To the former politician, it seemed as if the animal were saying “welcome” to her. And that’s when Kneissl decided she should stay. At least one animal friend was already waiting for her there, reports the Russian news portal “360.ru.”

The former politician had driven about 1,000 kilometers. All by herself, without speaking a word of Russian. Although the former minister was already working at a university in Saint Petersburg at the time, she didn’t want to live there. She’d always been drawn to the countryside, where she could live in close harmony with her four-legged friends.

We were also in Lebanon, without electricity, under bombardment.

Ex-Außenministerin Karin Kneissl

Bild: APA/Georg Hochmuth

“When I was surviving on the street, when I was sleeping on a mattress right on the street, I only made it through thanks to my dogs,” she explains in a video broadcast by “360.ru.” She shows this—with a photo of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in the background—during a conversation with journalists.

Here’s the full video:

Amid the bombardment in Lebanon
Her home, her reputation, and her sense of stability were all lost. But even in the darkest hours, the dogs always remained by her side. “We were also in Lebanon, without electricity, under bombardment,” says Kneissl. And together in Saint Petersburg, where she spent three months in a wheelchair.

In 2024, Kneissl moved into a cozy little house in the Ryazan Oblast. That is now the center of her life. Dogs, chickens, ponies, and even a peacock named “Salvatore Ferragamo” are part of her animal family. “Now I can only carry on for my own sake. Keep a clear head and be nice. But not too much,” says the former minister.

In the Service of Russian Propaganda?
Kneissl served as Austria’s foreign minister, nominated by the FPÖ, from 2017 until the Ibiza scandal in 2019. Critics see her as entirely in the service of Russian propaganda. Not only did she invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to her wedding in Styria in 2018—complete with a curtsy—but she also met with him in person on several occasions.

“In September 2020, Karin Kneissl was forced to leave her home country due to persistent death threats and a de facto ban on working in Austria,” according to her official website. She first moved to France, then to Lebanon, and finally to Russia. There, she now heads the think tank “Gorki Center.”