Austria’s former top diplomat Karin Kneissl (who danced with Putin) moves two ponies to Russia by dedicated Russian military airlifter
Austrian politician and former top diplomat Karin Kneissl, who took up residence in Russia over the summer, has moved her two ponies to Russia’s Leningrad region.
Last week, the Telegram channel Fighterbomber wrote that Kneissl’s “highly important, classified ponies” flew to Russia by dedicated military aircraft. On the same day, the Equestrian Club of Alyona Tkachenko posted a status on the Russian social media website VK: “We picked up two charming ponies at the Pulkovo airport, they crossed six borders, their itinerary started in Austria.”
Later on the same day, the veterinary authority for the Leningrad region announced that Kneissl’s ponies had been examined by local vets upon arrival.
Judging by photos from Pulkovo, the ponies were delivered by an Il-76MD long-range strategic airlifter attached to the Russian Defense Ministry, reports The Insider.
Karin Kneissl served as the head of Austria’s Foreign Ministry in 2017–2019. In 2018, she was photographed dancing with Vladimir Putin, who was a guest at her wedding. In 2020, Kneissl joined the board of directors of Russia’s state-controlled oil company Rosneft, resigning from that post in May 2022.
In August 2023, it emerged that Kneissl had rented a house in the village of Petrushovo in Russia’s Ryazan region. She also told the media that she had a new job as director of GORKI (Geopolitical Observatory for Russian Key Issues), a research center at St. Petersburg University. In September, Kneissl told TASS that she was moving to St. Petersburg.
