It's St. Pete, 1994, and the man reading a newspaper in the background is Vladimir Putin.
My favorite caption to this photo is by Marina Litvinovich: Lyuda chose this suit for him, yes.
Lyuda is Lyudmila Putina, Putin's wife, Russia's first lady with a truly horrible taste. She's not in the picture. The man in the foreground is Anatoly Sobchak, St. Pete's governor (or mayor: I'm not sure what they called themselves then) and also the one who jumpstarted Putin's career.
This is classic. Thank you for sharing. Vovchik sure has come a long way since then.
ReplyDeleteMy mother likes to tell a story about something that happened during the same era. She was working on a historical conservation project with the SPB government, and at one meeting she was introduced to a new member of Sobchak's team. So new that he didn't have a business card. So in one of her old address books she has Putin's name and number, written by his own hand. The hand that now rules Russia. Scary.
PS - Veronica, good luck in the coming days (weeks?) - I think you guys made the right roddom choice, especially since you get to blog from the room.