Russian state oil giant Rosneft has confirmed Austria's former Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, whose wedding in 2018 was attended by President Vladimir Putin, to its board of directors.
Kneissl was confirmed to the Rosneft board as an independent director, the company said in a statement on June 2 following an annual general shareholder meeting.
In August 2018, Kneissl, then Austria's foreign minister in the government of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, made headlines when she invited Putin to her wedding and danced with him.
The invitation came at a time when the European Union was at odds with Moscow over its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and other issues.
Kneissl, a Middle East expert without political affiliation, was appointed to her job by the far-right Freedom Party, which has a cooperation agreement with Putin's United Russia party.
She left the government in 2019.
According to Kneissl's personal website, the 56-year-old has recently written several opinion pieces for the Kremlin-backed RT news organization.
Rosneft, Russia's biggest oil producer, is headed by Igor Sechin, a close ally of Putin.
