In 2018, when a popular Austrian minister waltzed with Russian President Vladimir Putin and announced he was leaving Lebanon to stay permanently in Russia, he confirmed he had traveled on a Russian military plane. According to Agence France-Presse, her two horses. .

Former Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, who was appointed by the far-right as head of Austrian diplomacy between December 2017 and May 2019, said she went to live temporarily in Lebanon in 2022 and then decided to move to St. Petersburg. Last June, she took over as head of a research center at the New University.

On Tuesday, investigative reporting website “The Insider” condemned last week’s trip on a Russian military plane that took her two ponies and other belongings from the Hemimim base in Syria to St. Petersburg. airport.

On Wednesday, Kneissl, 58, tried to justify his position.

“It is impossible for me to drive a truck through Syria in light of the war conditions,” he told Agence France-Presse.

Later, Kneissl explained through the Telegram app that “because of the restrictions, there are no flights or DHL (shipping services)”, he explained how the matter of moving from one country to another became a “political issue”.

Kneissl made headlines in 2018 when he invited the Russian president to his wedding while he was foreign minister.

That day, media close to the Kremlin quickly released images that went viral, showing the bride waltzing with the Russian president and thanking him with an exaggerated bow.

After leaving the government, in 2021 Kneissl joined the board of directors of giant Russian oil company Rosneft, leaving in May 2022 following Russian forces’ invasion of Ukraine.

Kneissl was such a controversial figure in his country that he left in September 2020 to live in France, but he soon moved to Lebanon.

Kneissl confirms that he did not leave France of his own free will, but was forced to do so, noting that he went to live temporarily in Lebanon, where he lived in a small village.