Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Ocheretnaya, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ex-wife who despised her role as Russia’s first lady and is reported to be married to a guy 20 years her junior, lives a mysterious life.
The personal life of Russian President Vladimir Putin, one of the world’s most powerful and feared politicians, remains largely unknown.
As Newsweek reported in 2014, Russian journalists who attempt to write on Putin’s family’s private affairs are “dealt with swiftly and decisively.” Some have been forced to quit as a result of this.
Even less is known about Putin’s ex-wife, Lyudmila Ocheretnaya, who was married to him for nearly 30 years and is now known as Lyudmila Ocheretnaya. In June 2013, they announced their separation.
Despite this, she and her two daughters from her marriage to Putin have kept out of the spotlight. Ocheretnaya worked as a flight attendant for the Russian airline Aeroflot before marrying Putin in 1983. She speaks French, German, and Spanish fluently.
Maria and Katerina, Ocheretnaya and Putin’s daughters, were born in 1984 and 1985, respectively. Because both parents have kept them hidden from the public eye, little is known about them. Even as adults, the girls went to university under fictitious names to hide their true identities.
Putin and his then-wife returned to St. Petersburg in the 1980s after serving as KGB officers, and Putin began working for the government. Putin intended to keep his wife out of the spotlight, according to Reuters, despite her own goals.
“He believed that a wife should be more modest and not stand out”, a source told Reuters.
Ocheretnaya was dissatisfied as Russia’s first lady
According to Reuters, Ocheretnaya was dissatisfied with her status as Russia’s first lady. In 2013, Russian designer Slava Zaitsev, who had dressed Ocheretnaya for several occasions, told Reuters: “She used to tell me how she didn’t like to travel or expose herself in public back then. She wasn’t cut out for this part. Being the wife of the president came as a shock to her.”
Announcement of Divorce
The pair announced their divorce during an intermission of a Kremlin rendition of the dance “La Esmeralda” in 2013. “Our marriage is over because we don’t see each other,” Ocheretnaya explained. “Vladimir Vladimirovich is engrossed in his work to the point of exhaustion. Our children have matured. And I despise being in the spotlight.”
Remarried
In 2016, it was revealed that Ocheretnaya had remarried, this time to Artur Ocheretnaya, a man over 20 years her junior. Ocheretnaya is the executive director of the Center for the Development of Interpersonal Communications, a non-profit organization.
The pair recently purchased a villa in the southwest of France, which is valued at up to $7.46 million, according to reports. It is said to be undergoing renovations. This purchase raises doubts about Putin’s enigmatic fortune, believed to be worth $70 billion by one former Russian government aide.
