'Putin is an old-school gentleman,' says former Austrian Foreign Minister after he danced with her at her wedding
Former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, in a statement on Monday, said that she was left impressed with Russian President Vladimir Putin's behavior after the pair waltzed at her wedding last year.
"President Putin is an old-school gentleman. He has a special kind of manners that we don't see enough today, including in Central Europe," the diplomat told TASS. Kneissl reportedly came to Moscow to present the Russian edition of her book about a German 18th-century statesman and military commander Prince Eugene of Savoy.
Putin had attended Kneissl's wedding last year to financier Wolfgang Meilinger, where she said she experienced his gallantry for the first time. Reports state that the Russian leader gave flowers to the bride as they both proceeded to dance together surrounded by a crowd of wedding guests, who all had their phone cameras out to capture the moment.
"He danced very well. He made a beautiful gentlemen's gesture to thank a lady that I was," Kneissl recalled. "Little things like that bring something new in life… Unfortunately, such things have become lost in Germany and Austria."
The Kremlin leader's presence at Kneissl's wedding had created a controversy as the former Austrian finance minister received criticism from her political opponents. Putin's manners have often come into question. The leading German tabloid Bild, last year, had suggested that the Russian leader giving a flower bouquet to German Chancellor Angela Merkel was a sexist move.
Kneissl, earlier this week, had stated that global diplomacy was losing ground in recent years across the world. However, she praised Putin, saying he was a rare exception to the trend.
"When we talked with Putin, what struck me most was that it was just a real conversation. The most interesting conversations I have had were, inter alia, with Foreign Minister Lavrov and President Putin. You speak to them dealing with people who have great professional and life experience. This means that they can evaluate things, and not be attached to papers, they conduct this conversation, and this is the most important thing in diplomacy," Kneissl said, according to Sputnik.