Putin in Love

Inside the courtship of Vladimir Putin and Lyudmila Ocheretnaya, his first imperial subject—from a chance encounter in Leningrad and their K.G.B. days in Dresden to raising their family in St. Petersburg on the cusp of his sudden ascendance to unimaginable power. This piece has been adapted from Julia Ioffe’s new book, Motherland, a feminist history of modern Russia and a finalist for the National Book Award.

"Lyuda may have decided fairly quickly that she wanted to marry Volodya, but it took him three years to decide the same about her. It was an unheard-of delay for a generation more accustomed to shotgun weddings than long engagements. But Volodya was in no rush. He had been engaged before, to a young doctor also named Lyuda, but broke things off just before the wedding. At Lyuda’s first meeting with his mother, Maria told her that she had liked the first Lyuda better." Photo: Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images

Julia Ioffe

October 20, 2025

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“Lyuda, I congratulate you!” One of her girlfriends exclaimed, using the familiar version of her name when Lyudmila picked up the phone. It was New Year’s Eve 1999, and she thought this was yet another of the many New Year’s greetings pinging around Moscow that day. “And I you!” she responded automatically.