04-18-2008, 09:47 PM
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No Fat Chicks Allowed
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Join Date: Feb 2008
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Putin Denies Reports of Divorce; Newspaper Suspended
I suspect that the accusation about Putin is probably false but I'm posting this article because it's good for a laugh about Russia.
Quote:
MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin, who during eight years of centralized rule has kept his private life largely sealed from view behind the Kremlin’s walls, on Friday bluntly dismissed rumors that he had secretly divorced his wife for the affections of a gymnast less than half his age.
The moment, prompted by a question from a Russian journalist while Mr. Putin held a news conference at an Italian villa with Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister-elect of Italy, was met with the mix of relish and confrontation that Mr. Putin has often displayed in his sessions with journalists.
He paused and answered another question, and then returned to the subject and pushed back. “What you are saying has not a single word of truth,” he said.
The question followed the publication on Thursday of an unusual article in Moskovsky Korrespondent, a Moscow newspaper owned by a former Soviet intelligence officer, which said that Mr. Putin, 56, planned to marry Alina Kabayeva, 24, an Olympic gold medalist in rhythmic gymnastics who has been voted in polls as one of Russia’s most beautiful women. Interfax reported Friday evening that publication of Moskovsky Korrespondent had been suspended “for financial reasons,” according to its parent company, National Media Company.
Mr. Putin has been married to Ludmilla Putina, 51, since July 1983 — two months before Ms. Kabayeva was born. The couple has two grown daughters, but Mr. Putin and Mrs. Putina are not often seen together in public, which has long fueled rumors that Russia’s president has had a wandering eye.
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Putin Denies Reports of Divorce; Newspaper Suspended - New York Times
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