Questions about Vladimir Putin’s ex-wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva’s whereabouts were answered in April 2017 after news broke of her new relationship with Russian businessman Artur Ocheretny. The news site Sobesednik (via Meduza) uncovered documents seemingly showing Shkrebneva had remarried and changed her last name to Ocheretny. The new romance was confirmed when the Russian website Starhit posted photos of the couple traveling through Heathrow Airport in London.
Ocheretny is two decades younger than Shkrebneva. But it wasn’t the age difference that was shocking. The real scandal was where the money came from to pay for their $7.46 million “mini-palace” in Biarritz, France, purchased six months after Shkrebneva and Putin’s divorce was announced. According to an investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the property is solely in Ocheretny’s name, raising questions about how he could afford the 4,800-square-foot villa, set in a 54,000-square-foot private park.
Ocheretny headed up an arts agency that made a $420 profit in 2016. Meanwhile, the three businesses he once ran have all been liquidated. The OCCRP speculated the funds may have come from billions of dollars that Putin is believed to have squirreled away in offshore accounts. Although details of the property’s purchase are shrouded in secrecy, there remains little doubt about who lives there. According to Unheard, the name on the gate to the property is “Putin Suka,” which translates as “Putin b****.”
