VIENNA: Russian President Vladimir Putin danced arm in arm with Austria’s Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl at her wedding on Saturday, after receiving an invitation that opposition critics said undermined the West’s stance against Moscow.

Putin arrived in a car carrying a bouquet of flowers and accompanied, local media said, by a troupe of Cossack singers booked to serenade the newlyweds — on a stopover on his way to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel outside Berlin.

Photographs showed Kneissl, 53, smiling in a long white and cream “dirndl” dress and talking to 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 at a time 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 Kneissl — a polyglot Middle East expert without political affiliation — has a particularly close friendship with Putin. But she was appointed to her job by the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) which has links with Putin’s party.

FPO leader and Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, who joined Austria’s governing coalition last year, praised her as a “bridge builder” as he congratulated the couple and wished them “all the luck in the world and eternal love!” The international coverage of the visit would bring priceless publicity, he added. “A better advertisement for Austria, its wonderful nature, dreamlike landscape and real life hospitality cannot exist!” Joerg Leichtfried from the opposition Social Democrats tweeted that Austria’s current presidency of the Council of the European Union put it in an especially delicate spot given tensions between Putin and the West.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2018