Vladimir Putin’s first wife thought he was going to dump her since he was so low-key when he proposed to her.
In “First Person,” a 2000 book that includes interviews with several people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lyudmila Shkrebneva reported the strange request.
Putin told Shrebneva after they had been dating for over four years in 1983, “You know what kind of person I am by now.” “I’m not a laid-back person in general. You’ve probably made up your mind after three and a half years.”
Putin was working for the KGB, the Soviet Union’s feared secret agency, at the time. Before being moved to East Germany two years later, his major role was to keep an eye on foreigners and diplomatic officials.
For Shrebneva, “it sounded like we were breaking up.” When she told him that she had made up her mind, “he let out a doubtful ‘Yes?’”
In reality, Shrebneva stated that she “didn’t think much” of the unkempt man she met on a double date at a theater in the late 1970s. They stayed in touch after Putin, who is known for his secrecy, gave her his phone number.
‘Before divorcing in a staged television interview in 2013, the couple had two kids, Mariya and Yekaterina.
When her name was later removed from Putin’s official biography on the Kremlin’s website, the divorce was confirmed.