Spokesman dodges claims Putin married longtime mistress
MOSCOW — Vladimir Putin works so much it is difficult for him to have a personal life, his spokesman has claimed, while dodging rumours that the Russian president has secretly remarried.
Dmitry Peskov has been forced to deal with claims that Putin married Alina Kabayeva, a 30- year- old politician and former Olympic gymnast, in a church ceremony last week.
“It’s his decision and he’s not obliged to talk about his personal life,” Peskov told the newspaper Izvestia.
“He works so much I don’t know where he finds time for it.”
Putin and his wife of 30 years, Lyudmila, announced their divorce in June after 30 years of marriage.
Rumours that he had remarried were started by a Twitter user who claimed last week that the Federal Guards Service had blocked roads around the Iversky monastery in the Valdai Hills because “Putin and Kabayeva are being crowned,” a reference to Russian wedding traditions. Reporting on Putin’s personal life has been effectively taboo for Russian media since the tabloid Moskovsky Korrespondent was closed down after reporting similar marriage rumours about the president and Kabayeva, in 2008.
“It is useless to call them nonsense. We’ve done that a hundred times,” Peskov said.
“But the rumours live, and what can you do about it?”