Putin described as 'most intelligent gentleman' by former Austrian foreign minister | BBC News

Introduction dancing the warts Vladimir Putin and Karin kisil in 2018 then Austria's foreign minister she'd invited Russia's president to her wedding a private visit strictly but just a few months after the Salsbury poisonings which the EU like the UK had linked to the Russian State now with her boxer Winston Churchill curen kisil has moved to Russia to run a think tank she claims that after leaving office in 2019 back home she struggled to find work because she was seen as too close to Russia our government imploded in uh May 2019 and I wanted to restart my life as an analyst as a university teacher and I had to find out that there was not a single contract left and that was political PR pressure so when you don't have a single contract it was not really easy to to restart in Spring this year I received the offer by theor of St Petersburg University whether I would like to run an interdisciplinary Institute and they mentioned what they would like to see in there and for one night I was doing brainstorming with myself and I created the name gki which is the acronym for ch political Observatory for Russia's key issues do Is it controversial you understand that it is hugely controversial for a former Austrian foreign minister to move to Russia at a time when when this country has launched an unprovoked full scale invasion of its neighbor of Ukraine isn't there a danger that by being here you are legitimizing the The Invasion the war and also the domestic repression that takes place in Russia well I so far I have not seen any sort of repression in my immediate surrounding I can work here in a kind of uh academic freedom which I started missing when I was still teaching at various universities inside a few days ago in in this city not far away from this building a young Russian woman was uh sent to prison for seven years for replacing some price tags in a supermarket with anti-war slogans um there is definitely uh a wave of repression taking place in Russia yeah and so what do I have to do with that I just explained at Lens uh the situation that I have been going through so let us put it the whole thing to the other way why was Karen knis forbidden to work where is my crime but do do you condemn The Invasion sir uh if you have uh seen uh my interview with your esteemed colleague Steven sucker I answered his interrogation and I'm not interested in having another interrogation I'm asking War in Ukraine you whether the Russian invasion is in your view the Russian inv en illegal outbreak of War like any outbreak of war is a violation of international law yes that I just replied it's just that you're now living working I'm living here and then I was traveling to Russia and your esteemed colleague Mr Saka did this interrogation with me BBC did it already but you're studying the geopolitical situation right and you can't look at the geopolitical situation in Europe or the world without focusing on the the war in Ukraine surely that is which has turned the world upside down no I don't wouldn't say that has turned the world upside down honestly not having written about geopolitics for 25 years I would say a war that has definitely turned the world upside down is uh the war in Iraq 2018 um we had the Salsbury poisoning right then dozens of Russian Diplomat highly likely highly likely yeah to take the British term that it was linked to the Russian State yes highly like it doesn't so you don't believe that the I don't know it's I just quote the British uh authorities highly likely but just a few months after of course you invited Vladimir Putin to your wedding and you danced with him and you cursed to him you understand how controversial that must have been then yeah by the time I was the foreign minister and by the time I danced with President Putin but you see I have done other things in my life before and after and honestly it's so boring honestly it's very boring to talk about the the wedding yes yes so we should just I mean I think there are other more interesting topics we can discuss honestly you have no reg no I I I consider it as honestly boring and the dog just fell asleep and was snoring because he knows the topic the dog's not Most intelligent gentleman interested but people are amazed still I'm not saying Vladimir Putin is your close friend but you've met him you've met him from your meetings with him what kind of a person do you think he is he is the most intelligent gentleman with the focus on gentlemen and I met a few um is I mean I've uh I would say that in the sense of what Jane Austin wrote about the accomplished gentleman in Pride and Prejudice he he amounts to this uh standards this um idea of president presid Putin as a sort of a Jane Austin gentleman might surprise some when you consider what's happened over in recent years yes I I stick to this statement he's the most intelligent and accomplished gentleman I ever met objectively we're seeing uh a wave of repression domestically and we've seen Russia invade Ukraine it's hard to classify that as a gentlemanly action well Tony Blair Cameron um they all were involved with the governments being uh involved in military actions Libya um Syria finally I mean you say that um there are people in Austria who've accused you or accuse you of high treason accuse you of being a Russian spy a Russian spy can you to an extent understand no not to an inch not to not even to an inch I don't understand it it's just dirty fantasy