E-Paper
Putin to do a Sarkozy?
The Moscow rumour mill is buzzing after a newspaper report that Vladimir Putin has divorced his wife of 25 years and will marry young gymnast-turned-politician Alina Kabayeva. Fred Weir tells us more.
The Moscow rumour mill is buzzing after a newspaper report that Vladimir Putin has divorced his wife of 25 years and will marry young gymnast-turned-politician Alina Kabayeva.
The report, which appeared in Moskovsky Correspondent, cited a source inside a St Petersburg wedding planning agency, as saying that Putin, 55, secretly divorced his wife, Lyudmilla, two months ago and intends to marry Kabayeva in June.
Kabayeva, 25, born to Muslim father in Uzbekistan, is one of Russia’s best known athletes who posed for the Russian edition of Playboy.
Last December she was elected to the State Duma as a deputy for the United Russia Party. She won the gymnastics gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics . But she was stripped of her medals won at the 2001 World Championships after testing positive for diuretics.
The rumour has set Russia’s blogosphere ablaze. Some commentators say it’s natural for Russia’s most powerful man to have a young and beautiful wife. "If Sarkozy can marry a young celebrity, why not Putin?" argued one blogger.
Putin steps down as president on May 7. Lyudmilla Putina, a 50-year old former airline stewardess and her two adult daughters have rarely been seen in public through Putin’s eight years in the Kremlin.
