Karin Kneissl attended the World Youth Festival 2024 in Sochi. At a session organised by the Russian Znanie Society, she was a keynote speaker with a lecture on "Sanctions — Symbols of Failure".
Delivering an open lecture to the younger generation from around the world, Karin Kneissl, Head of G.O.R.K.I. Centre SPbU, explained how measures aimed at weakening the Russian economy turned into problems for those who accepted them. "The sanctions with which they wanted to isolate Russia from the world are an empty sound. There are 17,000 sanctions imposed on Russia. And all of them are not working. For the last 50 years in history, we have often seen sanctions in international relations. Life has shown that they are symbols rather than real diplomacy. This is not real politics, but something that is supposed to make a state behave in a certain way, change its line of behaviour," Karin Kneissl said.
Also, Head of G.O.R.K.I. Centre SPbU said that many Europeans now want to move to Russia. "Everyone who comes to the country sees that its economy continues to work. Things in society are actually much better than they are shown in the Western media. No wonder that today quite a few Europeans want to move to live in Russia. And, in my opinion, Russia can take advantage of this. If it creates conditions for such families to move to Russia. Especially since there are many qualified specialists among them who lost their jobs because of problems in the automotive or chemical industries in their countries," says Head of G.O.R.K.I. Centre St. Petersburg State University.
Karin Kneissl went on to cite facts confirming the unreasonableness of the sanctions imposed against Russia from the point of view of international law as well. "If we follow the fundamental document of international relations, the UN charter, there is only one body that has the right to impose sanctions in terms of legal procedures - it is the UN Security Council. And the US and 42 other countries have imposed personal sanctions against Russia, which means that we are talking about sanctions that are actually illegal from the point of view of the rule of law," she added.
In addition, the expert concluded that the countries that imposed the sanctions suffer from them more than Russia. "In fact, in many EU interior ministries, the law does not actually work today. To the great regret, real law and freedom are disappearing from the EU countries. The sanctions imposed against Russia hurt the countries that impose them the most," Karin Kneissl emphasised.
Head of G.O.R.K.I. Centre SPbU also took part in the session "Human Capital", where real prospects for training young leaders in the modern world were discussed. While the event, Karin Kneissl had an open dialogue with ladies and gentlemen on the "Multinational Unity" track. She also participated in a number of interviews for major Russian muss media.
At the Forum Karin Kneissl had a conversation with young, ambitious people from around the world. We invite them to join our events at the G.O.R.K.I. Centre SPbU to continue discussion.