MOSCOW, June 6 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin and his wife, Lyudmila, attended a ballet at the Kremlin Palace on Tuesday, marking the first time the couple has been seen together in public since the president’s inauguration in May 2012.
The Putins saw “La Esmeralda,” a ballet inspired by Victor Hugo’s novel “Notre Dame de Paris.”
Russia’s first lady has rarely appeared in public since 2008, when Putin’s second presidential term ended and he began a four-year stint as prime minister. Her absence from public life has prompted speculation in the press about her health and whereabouts.
Lyudmila Putin was last reported to have appeared in public in late March, when she made a brief speech in Moscow at the award ceremony of the Gorky Literature Prize, according to one of the award’s sponsors.