Putins announce their divorce
Putins announce their divorce
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his wife,
Lyudmila, announced on state television that they were divorcing after
29 years of marriage.
“It was our joint decision,”
Lyudmila Putina said in the surprise announcement on Thursday. “Our
marriage is over.” Revealing that they have not been seeing each other,
“Each has his own life,” she remarked.
Asked by the
TV reporter if this meant divorce, she and Mr. Putin agreed that they
would have “a civilized divorce.” The couple made a rare appearance
together for a ballet performance in the Kremlin before the
announcement.
Ms. Putina has rarely been seen in public over the past several years and when she was, she appeared unhappy.
In
a now famous 2010 appearance, she and Mr. Putin sat down with a camera
team for the Russian national census. Albeit carefully staged, the
footage showed Mr. Putin frequently caressing his Labrador dog while he
and his wife mechanically answered the census questioner that they were
“married.” In Thursday’s interview, she confessed that marriage to a
Head of State had been a burden for her. “I really do not like
publicity,” she said.
Mr. Putin agreed that the marriage had weighed on his wife. “Lyudmila Alexandrovna has been on duty for nine years,” he said.
Mr.
Putin has served two four-year terms as president and, after a
four-year interlude as prime minister, one year of his current term as
president.
Rumours had spread for years that the
Putins’ marriage was in tatters and, despite official denials, news
reports suggested that Ms. Putina had joined an Orthodox convent in the
western city of Pskov.
However, the most famous
gossip surrounded Mr. Putin, who has more than once been linked to
younger women, most famously to Alina Kabaeva, a former Olympic champion
in rhythmic gymnastics.
In 2008, a Moscow newspaper announced its closure after it reported that Mr. Putin and Kabaeva were about to marry. The New York Post also reported at least twice without naming sources that Kabaeva had borne a child to Mr. Putin.
Kabaeva, who is a State Duma deputy for the pro-Putin United Russia party, has steadfastly denied those reports.
The
Putins were married in 1983. Their two daughters, Maria and Yekaterina,
have been shielded from the public eye even more than their mother.
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