Karin Kneisl, the former Austrian foreign minister who made international headlines in 2018 when she danced at her wedding to Russian President Vladimir Putin, moved to Russia this summer, The Moscow Times reported.

In an interview with a local Russian website, Kneisl said he had rented a vacation home in the village of Petrushovo in the Reazan region, about 350 kilometers southeast of Moscow.

“I have it signed up for another month, then we’ll see what happens,” she told Vidsboku, without specifying how long she has been living in Petrushovo.

“When I look at chickens, ducks, goats on the streets, this is also my world because I grew up in a small village in Austria,” she said at a local event, speaking in Russian.

She also posted several photos of ponies, cats and chickens on her Telegram channel, but did not specify where they were taken.

As the ex-head of Austrian diplomacy, he caused a European scandal

A former Austrian foreign minister from 2017 to 2019, Kneisl caused a European scandal five years ago when she invited Vladimir Putin to her wedding, and was photographed dancing with the Kremlin leader just months after the European Union expelled dozens of Russian diplomats after being poisoned by “Novachko”. former double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain.

Putin gave the bride flowers, gifts and danced with her at the wedding, which took place in the south of Austria, near the border with Slovenia. The Russian president was accompanied by an orchestra of Cossacks who sang for the guests.

Kneisl was appointed head of Austrian diplomacy without being a member of any political party, having a career in academia behind her. She was nominated for the post of foreign minister by the FPO, the Austrian Freedom Party, a far-right party that was part of the ruling coalition in Vienna at the time.

She was left without political support after former chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s first cabinet collapsed following a vote of no confidence.

Karin Kneisl says that she “temporarily” moved to Russia

In the summer of 2021, Kneisl was appointed to the board of directors of Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil company, after being nominated for the position by the Austrian government a few months earlier.

She resigned last May after the European Union threatened to impose sanctions on former European officials who hold positions in Russia. Kneisl left Rosneft 3 days after former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who was the chairman of the board of the oil company.

At the time, Rosneft noted that they count on further cooperation with Kneissl “as a well-known representative of the international community of experts.”

She is currently listed on the website of the Geopolitical Observatory on Key Issues of Russia as the director of this research institute at St. Petersburg University.

On his personal website, Kneisl notes that he left his native country in September 2020 due to death threats and a “de facto ban on working in Austria.” She states that in recent years she lived on a farm in France, as well as in northern Lebanon, before “temporarily” moving to Russia.