Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Ocheretnaya (, ; [] and formerly Putina [, ]; born 6 January 1958) is the former wife of Vladimir Putin (the current president and former prime minister of Russia). Early life and education Lyudmila was born in Kaliningrad, Soviet Union, the daughter of Alexander (his patronym is reported variously as either Abramovich<ref>"Особая папка" Владимира Путина: итоги первого президентского срока и отношения с крупными собственниками', 'Алексей Мухин Центр политической информации, 2004, p.22</ref>Взлет и падение государства российского, Борис Николаевич Красильников, (Макс-Принт, 2003), p.572 or Avramovich) Shkrebnev (Александр Абрамович Шкребнев or Александр Аврамович Шкребнев) and Yekaterina Tikhonovna Shkrebneva (Екатерина Тихоновна Шкребнева). Her father worked at Kaliningrad Mechanical Plant. She was educated as a linguist. In 1986, Lyudmila graduated from the branch of Spanish language and philology of the Department of Philology of Leningrad State University. Later life and marriage In her early adult years, Lyudmila was a flight attendant for the Kaliningrad branch of Aeroflot. She met Vladimir Putin at a Arkady Raikin concert in Leningrad, and they married on 28 July 1983. The couple have two daughters, Maria (born on 28 April 1985 in Leningrad, Soviet Union) and Katerina (born on 31 August 1986 in Dresden, East Germany). From 1990 to 1994, Lyudmila taught German at the Department of Philology of Leningrad State University. For a few years prior to Vladimir's appointment as Prime Minister of Russia in August 1999, she was a Moscow representative of the company Telecominvest from 1998 to 1999 where she, as the only employee in the Moscow office, answered phone calls and organized meetings. In early 1997 and previously, she, her husband, their family, and the family of Nikolai Shamalov enjoyed vacations in Davos, Switzerland. During July 1998, she, her husband, and their family vacationed in the south of France where her husband attended important meetings before he became head of FSB after which the Putin family cancelled their planned August vacation in Davos. First Lady After Vladimir's rise to political power, Lyudmila maintained a low profile on the Russian political stage, generally avoiding the limelight except as required by protocol and restricting her public role to supportive statements about her husband."A look at the Putins over the years", The Moscow Times, 6 June 2013. Role in spelling controversy As First Lady, Lyudmila Putina was a curator of a fund that aimed to develop the Russian language and sometimes produced statements concerning Russian language and