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 2017goods that are now in the coffers of Austria.
These white gold earrings adorned with sapphires, whose value is estimated at 55,000 dollarss, had been donated to Karin Kneissl as a thank you for the invitation to her wedding in August 2018, according to the daily Kronen Zeitung.
Appointed by the far-right party FPÖ 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).
The media close to the Kremlin published images that They went around the world of the bride dancing with the Russian presidentto which he bowed.
The jewels in question are now in the reserves of the Austrian Statewhich 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 then the former minister “announced that he could not fulfill the conditions of the contract” and returned the jewels.
After his departure from the government, Kneissl was appointed in June 2021 to the board of directors of the Russian oil giant Rosneftjoining former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.
Both refuse to leave their duties despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, unlike other former European leaders, like 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 example of the Kremlin’s interference in the EUmoved to France in September 2020.
In a response to AFP, he confirmed that these gifts were “owned by the Republic since August 2018, as required by law.” (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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