Vladimir Putin (L) and his wife, Lyudmila, attend a service, conducted by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill, to mark the start of his term as Russia's new president at the Kremlin in Moscow in this May 7, 2012 file photo. REUTERS/Aleksey Nikolskyi/RIA Novosti/Pool/Files
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Hours after President Vladimir Putin and his wife, Lyudmila, told Russians their marriage was over, an anchorman on a satirical on-line show gravely announced the latest news: Putin has named Lyudmila "acting First Lady".
It was a joke, of course, but Russians say there's a touch of truth in every joke: While the reasons for the separation may be deeply personal, the staged admission of a long-suspected estrangement was Putin's latest pragmatic political gambit.
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