ANDY SOLTIS: PUTIN AND THE MISSUS ARE KAPUTSKI….
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/putin_wife_are_kaputski_CMzeqpvUUt26HYY980N5NJ
Marriage fizzles as affair rumor sizzles
Other than that, Mr. Putin, how was the show?
Russian President Vladimir Putin took in the ballet with his wife, then publicly addressed his mysterious 30-year marriage:
It’s over.
Putin, long rumored to have carried on an affair with sultry Russian gymnast Alina Kabaeva, made the announcement yesterday while appearing in public for the first time in more than a year with his wife, Lyudmila.
Standing in the lobby of a Kremlin hall after watching the first act of the ballet “Esmeralda,” the Putins answered questions from a state TV interviewer.
What about the rumors that Russia’s first family doesn’t live together anymore? “Is that true?” the interviewer asked.
Putin, 60, inhaled and said, “It is.”
“It truly was a mutual decision,” Lyudmila, 55, said. “Our marriage is over, since we practically never see each other.
“Things worked out such that each of us has his own life.”
The Kremlin has denied for years that the marriage was on the rocks and heatedly dismissed reports of Putin having affairs with younger women, including former Russian spy Anna Chapman.
The newspaper Moskovskiy Korrespondent was closed by its owners five years ago after it touched off a scandal by reporting that Putin had divorced Lyudmila to marry Kabaeva, 30, a former Olympic gold-medal gymnast.
Putin’s last public appearance with his wife was at his inauguration to a third term in May 2012.
Lyudmila, a former Aeroflot flight attendant and German teacher, said yesterday that she never relished the limelight.
“I don’t like publicity, and flying is difficult for me,” she said.
Putin hinted that had put a severe strain on their marriage.
“All my work is connected to being public, to be absolutely public,” he said in the three-minute interview yesterday. “Some people like that, others don’t. But there are some people for whom that is completely incompatible.”
Putin met Lyudmila while he was a young KGB agent. They married on July 28, 1983, before he was transferred to East Germany.
“I knew that if I didn’t marry in another two or three years, I’d never marry,” Putin wrote in his autobiography. “Of course, the habit of a bachelor’s life had set in. Lyudmila overcame it.”
The couple have two grown daughters, Maria and Katerina, who also keep a low profile.
“Our kids are grown up, and each lives her own life,” Lyudmila said yesterday.
Lyudmila said she and Putin remain friends.
“We will eternally be very close people,” she said.
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