Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University was paid a working visit by Mrs. Karin Kneissl, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Austria.
Being a non-partisan, she held the high post on the quota of the Austrian Freedom Party at the request of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. The period of her leadership of the Foreign Ministry was marked by the strengthening of ties with the Russian Federation, primarily in the energy sector, as Frau Kneissl, a doctor of law, is not only a diplomat, but also a major expert on the activities of OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries). Both before and after her resignation she never hid her "pro-Russian" views, for which she obtained a large number of threats. Since 2023, she has been living in the Russian Federation, where she heads the Geopolitical Observatory on Key Issues of Russia's Development at St. Petersburg State University.
During the meeting with Rector Vladimir Litvinenko, the parties noted the unconditional similarity of views on the situation that characterizes the relations between our country and the EU today, and its causes - irrepressible Russophobia on the part of the "establishment of the Old World". The guest said that she is writing a book called "Requiem for Europe" because, in her words, "Europe is dead". The main postulate of the work will be the statement that "...European politicians live by imposed emotions, while Russia is guided by facts". And its leitmotif is the statement "Russians do not give up."
The rector and the visitor agreed on the following:
At the end of April, Mrs. ex-minister will give an assembly lecture at Mining on oil and gas energy in the geopolitical aspect. It will cover such issues as the end of Germany's leadership in Europe's industrial development, the negative role of the EU's influence on nation states, the origins and causes of the media hysteria on the "Eastern question", and the prospects for resuming adequate relations with individual states.
By the end of the academic semester, communication cases will be held at the university, where students will be able to model their relations and build "oil and gas" forecasts in the short and medium term by taking over the functions of the Ministries of Energy of various OPEC countries.
Vladimir Litvinenko also made an offer to Ms. Kneissl to join the Supervisory Board of the Competence Center for Mining Education under the auspices of UNESCO.
It should be reminded that it was the time of the guest leadership of the Austrian Foreign Ministry that was marked by a serious breakthrough in the implementation of inter-university cooperation in the field of academic relations. For example, a significant number of graduate students of the Mining and higher educational institutions of the "NEDRA Concortium", which unites more than one hundred and twenty higher educational institutions of our country, studied under the double degree program in the German Freiberg and Austrian Leoben. As a result of parallel defenses, they obtained the degree of Candidate of Science in Russia and Doctor of Philosophy in the EU. Moreover, this program ended only last academic year, which the same Austrian professors, as they note in private correspondence, regret. It is impossible to openly express an opinion about the lost ties in "neutral" Austria today.