The Vladimir Putin divorce is final. The Russian strongman’s official Kremlin biography, some sharp eyed Russia-watchers noticed Wednesday, had been scrubbed to eliminate any mention of his wife of 30 years and mother of Putin’s two daughters, Lyudmila Putina.
So, ladies, now’s your big chance. Putin is on the market again, and the leader of a nuclear world power who’s not shy about annexing the territory of neighboring nations would make quite a catch!
Contrary to recent rumors around the divorce, including those repeated here on The Inquisitr , alleging that the Russian president is gay, he has long been reported to be involved in an extramarital affair with former Russian Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva .
At age 30, Kabaeva is the newly divorced Putin’s junior by more than the three decades that he has been married to his wife. Putin is 61 and now that his divorce is official, he is presumably free to date Kabaeva, who was one of the six torch-bearers at the recent Sochi Winter Olympics, in the open.
Or Putin can take full advantage of his divorce and shop the open market.
The rumors around a Putin divorce have persisted for years. In 2008, Vladimir denied that he was about to divorce Lyudmila Putina and marry Kabaeva. But with six years now passed, Kremlin-watchers will keep a close eye on Putin’s next romantic moves.
The official biography of Putin on line, when it mentions his family, now refers only to his two daughters, Maria, 28, and Yekaterina, 27.
“That means the divorce has taken place,” explained Putin flack Dmitry Peskov , giving some insight into the latest Kremlinology. The Russian first couple announced their plan to split last summer.
“Lyudmila is history. Whole epochs will now be thrown out of our history textbooks,” quipped one commenter on a Moscow radio station.
Erasing people from official texts and history books has long been a Russian tradition, or at least, became one during the Soviet Union era. But lately Putin has taken up that practice again. Recent editions of history textbooks make no mention of his political opponents.
Putin and his now-ex-wife were married in June of 1983. Lyudmila Putina was last seen in public since May of 2012, simply disappearing from view ever since, even prior to the Putin divorce announcement.
