Putin and the 2012 Olympic team

Here's a trip down memory lane!  I already posted about Putin meeting with the 2013 team after the Universiade this year, but here is the 2012 Olympic team meeting with Putin!

Ul, Putin, Ksyu

(I think it's hysterical how Ksyu just towers over Putin--she's such a giant!!)

Nazar, Putin, Blizia

Karolina & Putin

Putin & Makar

Putin & Blizia

If I were Alina Kabaeva, I might be a teensy bit jealous...Putin does look oh-so-pleased to be hanging out with the girls, doesn't he??

Putin & Dasha D

Especially with Zhenya (but who wouldn't be?!)!

Putin & Zhenya

Putin & Zhenya

Madame V's best (un)dressed photos *updated*

I've opened the Pandora's box, and now I can't go back!  So here she is, folks--Madame V in all her sartorial glory!

"I wore the see-through shirt just for you, Vova~!" (Blizia, Ul, Nazar, Putin, Viner, Makar, Zhenya)

*WARNING!!*  Some of these photos may cause viewers to lose their lunch!  View at your own risk!
Madame V has a tendency to let everything hang out, shall we say...?

How is that staying up, really??  (Yana L, Viner, Dasha D)

Blizia, Viner, Ul (at Zhenya's wedding)

Viner channeling her inner Cruella de Vil?  (with Dasha K & Dasha D)

Bursting at the seams?

Look how everyone's eyes are drawn to Viner...like a train wreck...

Shake it baby, shake it!

 I think Dasha K's side-eye look says it all! 

Dasha K, Dasha D, Viner

 I have no words for this whatsoever.  O_O

Yeah!! Work it Mama V, get those phone numbers!!

?, Andrei Kirilenko & Viner

As per rhythmicof's request, Madame V sporting a Russian flag hat, in jaunty fashion. And a sailor suit.

"Just try color coordinating like this, b*tches!"

Happy Birthday to the HBIC!!

Okay, people, it's time to talk about the woman who puts the "Viner" in VINERSTAN: Irina Alexandrovna Viner!!  She celebrated her 65th birthday today (July 30)!

V for Victory, V for Viner (Makar, Viner, ?, Nazar)

She is one terrifying lady, ruling over the RG world with an iron fist...

Be afraid, be very afraid!  (Makar, Blizia, Nazar)

Viner is not impressed!

Vera Efremovna: "Go, my darling baby!"; Zhenya; Viner: "I wish I could crush you in the palm of my hand, but damnit, you just keep on winning!"

(To Anna Trubnikova): "Mess this up and I'll throw you out of Novogorsk!"

"Don't even think about escaping!" (Zhenya and Dasha K behind)

 ...but she can also be terrifically affectionate towards her girls (when they win).

After the group won gold at 2012 Olympics (Nazar & Viner, Ul, Karolina, Ksyu, Makar, Blizia)

Viner:  "She's MY star; all her success is thanks to ME!" (?, ?, Viner, Zhenya, Vera Efremovna, Dmitri)

Zhenya's not fooled--"I know you still hate me for winning!"

Without her and her influence, Russian RG would be a lot less entertaining/amazing.  There would be no top-class facilities and staff, no training camps in Croatia, no vacations in Sardinia, and no private planes.

In Sardinia (August 2012): Nazar, Ksyu, Viner, Zhenya & Ul in back; Karolina, Dasha, Blizia in front

Dasha D on Viner's yacht

How did this happen, you ask?
Well, you see, Irina Alexandrovna is married to the richest man in Russia, Alisher Usmanov.

And theirs was a romance for the ages!

Back in Tashkent, many, many years ago...

There once was a beautiful gymnast named Irina Viner, a champion of Uzbekistan.  She caught the eye of a fencer, a Muslim youth named Alisher Usmanov, but he was just a boy, and she was a star. And at the time, he was "too timid to approach her." 

[According to this source via GoogleTranslate] Several years later, they met again in Moscow.  Viner had just divorced her first husband, and was caring for her young son.  This time, thanks to Usmanov's "perseverance and gallant manners," he soon won the heart of his beloved.

Alas, fate (or more like bad politics) soon intervened to separate the two!  Usmanov was (wrongly) convicted of fraud and sentenced to eight years in prison.  Immediately Viner flew from an RG tournament in Odessa to see him.  She told him she still loved him, and that she would wait for him.

He proposed to her from his prison cell. "He sent me a handkerchief which, according to Uzbek tradition, is a proposal of marriage," she says. "I still keep it today."

Many of her colleagues tried to convince her to abandon him, saying, "why are you dating a convict?  It will harm your career."  But she wouldn't listen to them, and in 1992, they were finally married.

And they lived happily ever after...

Viner, Usmanov's mom, Usmanov

...thanks to their buddy, Mr. President, who seems to have been ever so grateful for the introduction to a certain 2004 gold medalist.

The pres: "Thank Irina for introducing me to--" Usmanov: "Don't mention it!  Anything for you, buddy!"

All hail Madam V!!

The girls met with Putin!

I guess he made a speech to all the participants in the 2013 Universiade...?

Nastia M, Olga, Nazar, Putin, Rita, Blizia, Ksyu, Elena (where did Sasha go??)

(The height difference between Ksyu and Elena is so striking--HAHA!)
I love how the girls are sitting in the front row.  OF COURSE THEY ARE!

Nastia M and Ksyu on far right

Nastia M, Ksyu, Nazar on left; Blizia in the middle; Sasha, Rita, Olga near the far end

Nastia M, Ksyu, Nazar on the left; Blizia on the right.

(The guy on the aisle in the second row totally does NOT approve of all this photo-taking!)

Elena, Sasha, Rita, Olga

And of course, Madame Viner had to saw a few words...

The President and the Gymnast

Well, now that it's official that Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila are getting a divorce, I thought it was finally time to tackle this topic.

As the New York Times writes:

For at least five years, rumors have linked Mr. Putin to Ms. [Alina] Kabaeva, who won a gold medal in rhythmic gymnastics, and who in recent years has served as a member of the Duma, the lower house of Parliament. In 2008, after a newspaper, Moskovsky Korrespondent, reported that he planned to marry Ms. Kabaeva, publication of the newspaper was suspended abruptly for what its parent company said were “financial reasons.”

Of course, Putin and his aides deny the existence of an affair.
What's the truth?? Well, I've always thought that a picture is worth a thousand words...

The look of love...

...is in your eyes...

 My goodness, he's always giving her flowers!

"For you, darling."

"Yes, we are a picture-perfect couple!"

"Oh HELLZ YEAH, he TOTALLY loves me!!"

Don't they look happy?

How did they meet, you ask?  Why, all thanks to head coach Irina Viner, of course!! (Welcome to Vinerstan, people!)

Kabaeva, Viner looking oh-so-pleased, Putin

...Which is precisely why it was SOO disturbing to find this picture from 2008 (after the Beijing Olympics).  You can practically hear Viner saying, "Look Dmitri--look how cute these dimples are!!" *shudder*

Viner, Dmitri Medvedev, Zhenya Kanaeva