Putin as the new Mr. Darcy? Austrian ex-minister lauds ‘gentleman’ Russian leader

When you think of an old-fashioned gentleman straight from the pages of a Jane Austen novel, who do you think of?

Well, if you are former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, it’s Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kneissl told the BBC in an interview published Thursday that she stands by her controversial decision to move to Russia, and she was full of praise for the Russian president.  

“[Putin] is the most intelligent gentleman, with the focus on gentleman — and I’ve met a few,” Kneissl said. “In the sense of what Jane Austen wrote in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ about the accomplished gentleman, he amounts to this standard.”

Kneissl served as Austria’s foreign minister from 2017 to 2019, drawing criticism for her close links to the Russian leader.

In 2018, she invited Putin to her wedding in the Austrian Alps and shared a waltz with him, attracting the fury of opposition leaders. But while the infamous dance remains a hot topic, Kneissel said she finds the issue “boring.”

“The whole thing happened nearly six years ago,” she told BBC. “At the time I was foreign minister and I danced with President Putin. But I have done other things in my life before and after. Honestly, it’s so boring. It’s very boring.”

After leaving politics, Kneissl joined the board of Rosneft, the Russian state-owned oil company — a post she has since left — and became a regular on RT, a broadcaster of Russian state propaganda.

Speaking to the BBC, Kneissl lamented the “witch hunt” that followed her in Austria, saying it made it hard for her to work and forced her to move to France and Lebanon, before settling in Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg to lead the GORKI center, a think tank she co-founded in March.

Questioned over her decision to move to Russia while Moscow continues its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kneissl defended her choice.

“Well, so far I have not seen any sort of repression in my immediate surroundings,” she said. “I can work here in a kind of academic freedom which I started missing when I was still teaching at various universities in the European Union.”

“Let us put the whole thing the other way: Why was Karin Kneissl forbidden to work? Where is my crime? I am really grateful I have the opportunity to work [in Russia],” she said, adding that she will not return to Austria until “a lot of legal cases have cleared my reputation.”

As for the rumors that she is a Russian spy? “It’s just dirty fantasy,” she said.