Putins Finally Appear Together, to Announce Split

The Kremlin and Mr. Putin vigorously denied that his marriage was in trouble, and a newspaper that suggested otherwise was shut down abruptly. But on Thursday night Mr. Putin made a rare public appearance with Lyudmila to announce that they were divorcing after nearly 30 years, the first time since Peter the Great in 1698 that a sitting leader of Russia has dissolved his marriage.

The true circumstances of Mr. Putin’s personal relationships are shrouded in secrecy. But Mr. Putin, 60, has made housecleaning a focus of his third presidential term, shutting out Kremlin players he no longer trusts and tacking toward a conservative electorate whose loyalty seems assured.

Stripped of the political institutions that existed even during the Soviet era, Russia is largely governed by Mr. Putin’s ideas and frame of mind. Free of the election cycle and concerned about his popularity, he may now hope to create a more open personal narrative.

In Moscow on Thursday night, Kremlinologists watched the televised announcement, wondering how much change to expect in the coming months — in particular, whether to expect a new first lady.

“We have seen the first act; the question is whether there will be a second. Is there a woman in whose name this was done?” said Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a sociologist who has informally advised the Kremlin in the past. “The main question, the intrigue, is not in divorce. It’s in this: Will he get married again?”

Thursday’s announcement, as the couple walked out of the first act of the ballet “La Esmeralda,” appeared orchestrated and a bit awkward. A waiting reporter for state television asked the two, “How did you like ‘Esmeralda?' ” and then launched into a question that, under normal circumstances, could have gotten her fired: “You so rarely appear together, and there are rumors that you do not live together. Is that so?”

Mr. Putin inhaled, glanced at his wife, and said, “That’s true.”

“My activities, my work is very public,” he went on. “Some people like it, some don’t — but there are some people who are absolutely incompatible with it. Lyudmila Aleksandrovna has done eight years’, even nine years’, duty. So, to sum it up, it was a joint decision.”

It fell to Mrs. Putin to come out and say it. “Our marriage is over,” she said, “because we practically never see each other.”

Russia remains a deeply conservative country where the Orthodox church is increasingly influential, and Mr. Putin’s popularity rests in large part on the support of middle-aged women, who might react badly if he remarries a younger woman.

“He is taking a risk,” said Alexander Rahr, the author of a biography of Mr. Putin. “We know the Russian church will be quiet, they will make no comment. But people will look at this not with great sympathy. The divorce of the president is always risky, especially in Russia, where he is considered a symbol of the new Russian statehood.”

But Russian analysts were largely positive, and predicted that most Russians would approve. Aleksei Mukhin, director of the Center for Political Information, said that it would be “a great relief” for Mr. Putin to stop pretending that his marriage was intact, and that the announcement was timed for minimal furor, at a moment when Mr. Putin has no elections to worry about.

Ms. Kryshtanovskaya said she believed that the divorce would serve to improve his image. “The divorce of Putin is a step toward democracy,” she said. “He could hide as much as he wanted, but he chose to reveal that he is human, he can have bad luck. He chose transparency.”

She was less certain, she said, of the reaction should he choose to marry the former gymnast, Alina Kabayeva. “If it turns out to be Kabayeva, they have agreed to it a long time ago,” she said. “But I would not hurry if I were Putin.”

For at least five years, rumors have linked Mr. Putin to Ms. Kabayeva, who won a gold medal in rhythmic gymnastics, and who in recent years has served as a member of the Duma, the lower house of Parliament. In 2008, after a newspaper, Moskovsky Korrespondent, reported that he planned to marry Ms. Kabayeva, publication of the newspaper was suspended abruptly for what its parent company said were “financial reasons.”

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