Karin Kneisl, who headed Austria’s foreign ministry and is famous for dancing the waltz with Vladimir Putin in 2018, moved to Russia after traveling with her ponies on a specially arranged flight from a Russian air base in Syria, AFP reported.

Karin Kneissl, who was appointed by the far-right to the foreign ministry from December 2017 to May 2019, has lived in Lebanon since 2022 and decided to move to St. Petersburg to take over the presidency of the new scientific think tank in June.

Investigative website The Insider took offense on Tuesday to the flight she took last week with her ponies between the Khmeimim base in Syria and St Petersburg airport.

The former minister, 58 years old, tried to justify herself on Wednesday. “It was impossible for me to drive a truck through Syria during the war,” she told AFP.

“Because of the sanctions, there are no flights or (the DHL delivery service),” she said at the time on the Telegram social network, expressing surprise that “her approach has become a political issue.”

Karin Kneisl made headlines in 2018 when she invited the Russian president to his wedding while she was in charge of Austrian diplomacy.

Media close to the Kremlin were happy to publish footage that went viral, showing the bride waltzing next to the Russian president, whom he honored with a deep bow.

After leaving the government, Karin Kneissl joined the board of directors of Russian oil giant Rosneft in 2021, a post she left in Brussels in May 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine.

In September 2020, Kneisl moved to France, causing much controversy in her home country. She claims she was pressured to leave and settled temporarily in a small village in Lebanon.

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