Vladimir Putin lobbied for the phasing out of economic sanctions and dodged questions about the shooting down of flight MH17 during his first state visit to an EU member state since being re-elected as Russian president in March.

“Both those who initiate these actions and those such measures that we call sanctions are aimed against find them harmful,” Putin said in Vienna on Tuesday, claiming that European countries were merely “finding it hard to say so”.

MH17 downed by Russian military missile system, say investigators Read more

The Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, said diplomatic progress in eastern Ukraine, followed by a “gradual easing of sanctions”, imposed after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, was “the scenario we are wishing for”.

Notionally scheduled to commemorate 50 years since Austria became the first western European country to sign a natural gas deal with the Soviet Union, the visit also offered the Russian and Austrian leaders opportunities to advance their respective geopolitical agendas, with Kurz, 32, pushing his credentials as a bridge builder between east and west.

For Putin, the state visit provided the friendliest of platforms for a charm offensive. Austria is not a member state of Nato and was one of the few EU countries not to expel Russian diplomats over the Skripal attack. The country also continues to be a major hub for the import of Russian gas into Europe, and its trade with Russia increased by 40% over the past year, in spite of the sanction regime.

Sergei Skripal scandal has sent UK-Russia relations tumbling. What next? Read more

The trip has come a month before Austria takes over the rotating EU presidency in July, and a week before Russian, Ukrainian, German and French foreign ministers are due to meet in Berlin on 11 June to discuss the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

On the eve of the visit – during which the Russian president was protected by 800 soldiers, 800 police officers and 17 military vehicles – Putin had to face much tougher questions in an interview with the Austrian television journalist Armin Wolf, an encounter that turned out to be the toughest grilling the Russian president has faced for some years.

Sit-down interviews with Putin are rare and usually conducted by loyal journalists. Wolf, however, repeatedly interrupted Putin when he gave evasive or misleading answers.

In a particularly heated exchange on the annexation of Crimea and the shooting down of MH17 over eastern Ukraine, an irate Putin snapped: “If you do not like my answers, then do not ask me questions” and accused Wolf of engaging in “a monologue rather than an interview”.

Putin did not have much to say on the specific allegations that a Russian missile was responsible for the downing of the plane, except to cast doubt on the international investigation and say that Ukraine shot down a passenger plane by mistake in 2001.

“The tragedy we are talking about is terrible, and I feel immensely sorry for the victims and their families, but this investigation must be objective and comprehensive,” he said.

After pressing Putin on Ukraine, Syria, Russian meddling in Europe and why he had never uttered the name of Russia’s most prominent opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, who is currently in jail, Wolf used his final question to ask why there were so many Kremlin-approved photos of a half-naked Putin.

“You said ‘half-naked’ not ‘naked,’ thank God. When I am on vacation I see no need to hide behind the bushes, and there is nothing wrong with that,” said Putin.

UK sanctions against Russia: what impact will they have? Read more

During the visit, the Russian president was given an easy ride by figures from the more liberal end of the spectrum, such as the Austrian president, Alexander Van der Bellen, a former leader of the Green party.

Asked during a joint press conference whether Austria’s dependence on Russian gas made the country prone to economic blackmail, Van der Bellen said American liquefied gas was two or three times more expensive than Russian gas.

“Under these circumstances it makes little sense, purely economically, to replace Russian gas with American liquefied gas,” he said. The Austrian president also rejected one interviewer’s suggestion that Russia had a “credibility problem” in its current conflict with the EU.

Over the weekend, the Austrian vice-chancellor, Heinz-Christian Strache, called for an immediate end to “exasperating sanctions” against Russia. His Freedom party signed a five-year “cooperation pact” with Putin’s United Russia party in 2016.