PUTIN SHOWS HIS FANCY FOOTWORK
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has danced arm in arm with Austria’s Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl at her wedding after receiving an invitation that opposition critics said undermined the West’s stance against Moscow.
Mr Putin arrived on Saturday in a car carrying a bouquet of flowers and accompanied, local media said, by a troupe of Cossack singers booked to serenade the newlyweds.
He was on a stopover on his way to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel outside Berlin.
Photographs showed Ms Kneissl, 53, smiling in a long white and cream “dirndl” dress and talking to Mr Putin as they danced in a vineyard in southern Styria province, the venue of her wedding to entrepreneur Wolfgang Meilinger.
The invitation surprised many in Vienna and Moscow, particularly when the European Union is at odds with Russia over its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and other issues.
There have been no reports that Ms Kneissl is particularly close to Mr Putin.