[custom_adv] Austrian authorities imposed tight security measures around the site of the ceremony near the southern border with Slovenia, where foreign minister Karin Kneissl married her partner Wolfgang Meilinger, a businessman. [custom_adv] Kneissl, an independent, was nominated by the pro-Russia Austrian Freedom Party, whose leaders also attended the wedding. [custom_adv] He gave the newlyweds a cold press oil machine, a traditional Russian samovar and a landscape painting that “depicts the place where the groom hails from”, said Peskov. [custom_adv] Austria’s foreign minister is under fire for inviting Vladimir Putin to her wedding Saturday — at which the Russian president was pictured dancing with the bride — with opposition politicians criticizing the decision as the country holds the EU’s rotating presidency. [custom_adv] Karin Kneissl, nominated as an independent to the post of foreign minister by the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), married businessman Wolfgang Meilinger in the Austrian alps. [custom_adv] Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, also from the FPÖ, were also invited. [custom_adv] But Socialist MEP Evelyn Regner told Der Standard that the Russian president’s visit marks “a provocation with a European dimension” given Putin’s anti-EU approach, also tweeting that the invitation is “shameful”. [custom_adv] Peskov said Putin proposed “quite a long toast in German in which he said he was thankful and happy that he got a chance to visit the hospitable Austria”. [custom_adv] Austrian politician Joerg Leichtfried of the opposition Social Democratic Party criticised Kneissl’s decision to invite Putin to the wedding. [custom_adv] He said it called into question Austria’s role as a neutral intermediary in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where Russia-backed rebels are battling government forces. [custom_adv] Austria currently holds the European Union’s rotating presidency. [custom_adv] Initially, the invitation was billed as a private matter but Austrian media has since reported that working talks would take place on the sidelines of the wedding. [custom_adv] Karin Kneissl married her partner, businessman Wolfgang Meilinger, in a ceremony near the southern border with Slovenia. [custom_adv] “How should Austria’s EU Presidency fulfill the government’s claim of building bridges and being an honest broker,” said Andreas Schieder, an MP and foreign affairs spokesperson, for the opposition SPÖ. [custom_adv] Mr Putin was showing support for Ms Kneissl, an independent politician who was proposed for the role by the pro-Russia Austrian Freedom Party, whose leaders were also at the nuptials. [custom_adv] Mr Putin and the bride, dressed in traditional Austrian costume, appeared to share a joke as they made their way round the dancefloor