They Want to Strip the Austrian Passport From the Former Minister Living in Russia. Lawyers Doubt the Law Allows It

Former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, who danced with Vladimir Putin at her own wedding in Gamlitz, Styria, on 18 August 2018, has lived in Russia since 2023. The liberal party NEOS announced in January its intention to strip her of her Austrian passport, and on 10 March it sent a motion to the office of the Lower Austrian provincial government. However, the law imposes two conditions simultaneously for revocation, and meeting both is harder than it seems. ORF ↗The Austrian Citizenship Act addresses revocation in Section 33. It applies to a citizen who "is in the service of a foreign state" and whose conduct simultaneously "seriously damages the interests or reputation of the Republic." Both conditions must be met at the same time. NEOS cites her disparaging remarks about Austria and her spreading of Russian propaganda, arguing that the public still perceives her as a former minister. The first criterion is the contentious one. Kneissl heads the GORKI research center at St. Petersburg State University, which was founded in 2023. ORF ↗

Constitutional lawyer Heinz Mayer is skeptical of the plan. "Kneissl would have to seriously damage the Republic's reputation, which is questionable," he told the newspaper oe24. According to him, the provision is aimed more at espionage activity, which is difficult to prove, and simply badmouthing one's own country is not enough. NEOS's European spokesperson Dominik Oberhofer, himself a lawyer, sees it similarly. In his view, the critical statements are foolish but still a legitimate expression, and it should be conduct, not words, that determines the outcome. oe24 ↗ The Local Austria ↗

Automatic loss of citizenship would be possible via a different route. Under Section 27, a person loses Austrian citizenship if they voluntarily acquire a foreign nationality without having first obtained permission to retain their Austrian one. However, according to her own statements, Kneissl has no interest in a Russian passport. "I have no plans to change my identity," she said in late July, adding that at her age it would not even be possible anymore. According to Austrian media, she lives in a village in the Ryazan region, several hours' drive east of Moscow, where she is renovating a house. OÖNachrichten ↗

So without a Russian passport, automatic loss will not occur. Revocation under Section 33, however, would not be stopped by the risk of statelessness. The Austrian government portal explicitly states, for this ground, that the process proceeds "even if the person thereby becomes stateless." The law reserves a safeguard against statelessness for only two other grounds: participation in armed conflict and conviction for terrorism. The real obstacle thus remains proving both conditions at once. Added to this is the fact that losing one's Austrian passport also means losing European Union citizenship, so the authority must weigh the proportionality of such a measure. oesterreich.gv.at ↗

Meanwhile, the matter has also become procedurally tangled. The motion was received by Lower Austria, where Kneissl had her last registered residence, but the local FPÖ politician Martin Antauer objected that her registration there was no longer valid and forwarded it to the province where she was born. That is Vienna. There it lands on the desk of Deputy Mayor Bettina Emmerling, whose portfolio also covers the citizenship file. She is a member of NEOS — the very party that filed the motion. oe24 ↗