Vladimir Putin's cougar ex wife is dating a millionaire bloke 20 years her junior, after the Russian President set them up.
The Russian premier and Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Ocheretnaya married on 28 July 1983 and split in 2014 after having two daughters together, Maria and Katerina.
In 2015, Lyudmila, who is 64, married 44-year-old Artur Ocheretny, in a marriage apparently orchestrated by Putin himself.
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That's according to a report by the organisation founded by jailed Putin critic Alexei Navalny, the Anti-Corruption Foundation.
On Monday, August 8, Maria Pevchikh, head of the investigative unit at the organisation, said: "In the old times it was common for a bride's parents to arrange a dowry: something valuable, like money, expensive fabrics or jewelry to 'increase the bride's value.
"But Putin took a whole new approach. He literally arranged a multi-million dollar dowry for his ex wife."
Pevchikh did not specify exactly how much Putin's ex-wife's dowry was worth, but reports state the couple received millions in donations to their foundation and bought luxurious properties throughout Europe.
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Asked a year after he and Lyudmila's marriage officially ended in 2014 whether he would remarry, Putin reportedly replied: "First I need to marry my ex-wife, and only then will I think of myself."
Pevchikh said that Putin's marriage to Lyudmila had been a "sham" for more than a decade.
"Lyudmila never was a real First Lady," Pevchikh wrote about Putin's ex-wife. "We barely saw her in public and never heard her speak. She would be used once a year as a living prop at church services."
Therefore, their ultimate divorce "came as no surprise," Pevchikh said.
After they announced their split, in 2013, Lyudmila said the pair would "remain very close" and that she was "grateful" for his continued support.
If reports are to be believed, that support has come in many forms.
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A Reuters examination of property records in 2017 found that Ocheretnaya could be tied to a multimillion-dollar property business.
Reportedly, her husband came to own a handful of villas and apartments across several countries outside of Russia after his new wife's split from Putin, said to be one of the world's richest men.
“Artur Ocheretny and Lyudmila Putina (now officially Lyudmila Ocheretnaya) have no money of their own. Everything they own has been stolen from them by Vladimir Putin. Like a reverse Robin Hood, Putin steals from the poor to give to the rich," Pevchikh said.
Back in 2010 Ocheretny became chairman of the Center for the Development of Interpersonal Communications board of directors.
This was despite working as a low-key seafood business and events company to that point.
Interestingly, Lyudmila was made boss of the CDIC, a branch of the Russian language development centre just before Ocheretny was given the gig.
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