The Dresden Opera Ball will be brought to St. Petersburg next fall, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will dance the opening waltz, a German media report said Friday.
The decision to stage a rendition of the Semperoper Ball in Putin’s hometown came after Putin was “thrilled” upon returning from the event last January, the Bild tabloid reported, citing the ball’s organizer, Hans-Joachim Frey.
“He showed a video of the ball to an audience of businessmen and ministers in Moscow and told them ‘I want this too,’” Frey told the tabloid.
Putin, who worked as a KGB officer in Dresden from 1985 to 1990, received a medal of gratitude at the ball last year.
The ball will be held Sept. 17 for 1,700 guests in St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater, the paper said.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he could not comment on the report because it was outside of his field of competence.