President Vladimir Putin's longtime spokesman Dmitry Peskov — something of an Internet celebrity in his own right — is to marry an Olympic figure skating champion, his apparent intended told Tatler magazine in an interview published Thursday.
Tatyana Navka, 40, a gold medalist at the 2006 Winter Olympics, told the glossy magazine that she would marry Peskov, a 47-year-old father of three from two previous marriages, in Sochi, the Black Sea resort where Russia hosted its first Winter Olympics last year.
Peskov and Navka already have a daughter, Nadya, who was born last August.
“I didn't even like him at first. … But he did well — he conquered me with his elegance and persistence,” the Olympic ice dancer was cited as saying in the interview by RIA Novosti news agency.
“When we are together — forgive me for the banality — flowers blossom, the sun shines and everyone gravitates toward us,” she added.
Rumors about Peskov's relationship with Navka have circulated in the Russian tabloid press since 2012, when he divorced his second wife Yekaterina. The pair split over his unfaithfulness, Peskova told Tatler in an interview last year.
Peskov, who is the subject of a fake Twitter account devoted to his trademark mustache, has repeatedly declined to comment on his private life.
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