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Kremlin alarmed over ‘cancel’ crusade against ex-Austrian top diplomat

Dmitry Peskov specified that Karin Kneissl had not asked the Russian government for help when she had been facing these threats

MOSCOW, July 6. /TASS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov condemned the harassment of ex-Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, who earlier had served on the Board of Directors of Rosneft, saying that this indicates the unhealthy state of society there, when speaking to journalists on Wednesday.

"We have a negative attitude towards this - how else can one treat this? Naturally, these are abysmal symptoms demonstrating that society is unhealthy. As far as we know, indeed, she was harassed, subjected to ‘cancel culture’ and so on, and so forth. That is, indeed, completely unbearable conditions have been created for her," he said in response to a request by TASS to comment on Kneissl’s predicament.

According to the Kremlin official, this is a "wake up call for a society capable of this." That said, he specified that Kneissl did not ask the Russian government for help when she was facing these threats.

Earlier, The Washington Post reported that Vienna’s former top diplomat left Austria after receiving death threats and terminated her contact with the media. At the end of May, she stepped down from the Board of Directors of Rosneft which she had joined last year. She served as Austria’s Federal Minister for European and International Affairs in 2017-2019.