Former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl has written a letter of resignation from her post as a member of the board of directors of Rosneft. She entered it in June 2021.
Earlier it became known that the former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and an old acquaintance of Putin from work in East Germany, Matthias Warnig, left the company.
In my country blocked
present tense
The statement of the former Austrian minister came into force on Friday, May 20, says on the company’s website.
“The company would like to thank Karin Kneissl for her cooperation over the past ten months,” it said in a statement. It is noted that the former official also refused to extend her powers for a second term.
Kneisl headed the Austrian Foreign Ministry in 2017-2019. She was nominated for the post of foreign minister by the Austrian far-right Freedom Party, which advocated Euroscepticism and improved relations with Russia.
In 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin unexpectedly attended the wedding of Kneisl, who was then Austrian Foreign Minister. He gave the newlyweds a picture, an oil extractor and a samovar and danced with the bride.
In 2019, Kneisl did not get into the new government of Austria, which was formed after a big political scandal and the appointment of new elections. Alexander Schallenberg now holds the post of Austrian Foreign Minister.
Rosneft, which is 50% owned by the state-owned Rosneftegaz, has been repeatedly criticized for high remuneration to members of the company’s board of directors. It is known that according to the results of 2019, the former member of the council, ex-Chancellor of Germany Gerhard Schroeder, was offered to pay $600,000, the representative of Qatar Investment (the state investment fund of Qatar) Hamad Rashid Al Mohannadi – $530,000, and the managing director of Nord Stream AG (the Nord Stream oil pipeline “) Matthias Warnig – $ 580 thousand.
Pressure on Western politicians involved in Russian business intensified after the start of the war in Ukraine. Rosneft was placed on EU sanctions lists after the start of the Russian invasion. On May 19, the European Parliament proposed to freeze Schroeder’s assets because of his work in the company. Warnig, who served in the East German Stasi secret police when Putin was with the KGB in Dresden, was placed on US sanctions lists after the invasion began.
