Lyudmila Putina

Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Ocheretnaya (Людмила Александровна Очеретная, ljʊdˈmjilə ɐljɪkˈsandrəvnə ɐtɕɪˈrjetnəjə; (Шкребнева) and formerly Putina (Путина, ˈputjɪnə); born 6 January 1958) is a Russian linguist who served as the First Lady of Russia from 2000 to 2008 and from 2012 to 2014 as the ex-wife of Vladimir Putin, the current president and former prime minister of Russia. Lyudmila was born in Kaliningrad, Soviet Union, the daughter of Alexander (his patronym is reported variously as either Abramovich"Особая папка" Владимира Путина: итоги первого президентского срока и отношения с крупными собственниками', 'Алексей Мухин Центр политической информации, 2004, p.22 or Avramovich) Shkrebnev (Александр Абрамович Шкребнев or Александр Аврамович Шкребнев) and Yekaterina Tikhonovna Shkrebneva (Екатерина Тихоновна Шкребнева). Her father worked at Kaliningrad Mechanical Plant. She was educated as a linguist. In 1986, Lyudmila graduated from the branch of Spanish language and philology of the Department of Philology of Leningrad State University. In her early adult years, Lyudmila was a flight attendant for the Kaliningrad branch of Aeroflot. She met Vladimir Putin at a Arkady Raikin concert in Leningrad, and they married on 28 July 1983. The couple have two daughters, Maria (born on 28 April 1985 in Leningrad, Soviet Union) and Katerina (born on 31 August 1986 in Dresden, East Germany). From 1990 to 1994, Lyudmila taught German at the Department of Philology of Leningrad State University. For a few years prior to Vladimir's appointment as Prime Minister of Russia in August 1999, she was a Moscow representative of the company Telecominvest from 1998 to 1999 where she, as the only employee in the Moscow office, answered phone calls and organized meetings. After Vladimir's rise to political power, Lyudmila maintained a low profile on the Russian political stage, generally avoiding the limelight except as required by protocol and restricting her public role to supportive statements about her husband.