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MOSCOW - Moskovsky Korrespondent, the newspaper that first reported rumours of a marriage between Vladimir Putin and Alina Kabaeva, a 24-year-old gymnast, has closed, shortly after the President told journalists it was unacceptable to pry into his private life with "snotty noses and erotic fantasies".
Putin strongly denied that he had divorced his wife and planned a June wedding with Kabaeva. The owner of the paper, Alexander Lebedev, said he thought the story was "nonsense" and the editorial team admitted there was no basis to the story.
The head of the paper's parent company, Artem Artemov, insisted there was no political subtext to the decision to "halt" the paper.
Lebedev has good relations with the Kremlin but co-owns the sharply oppositionist Novaya Gazeta, where murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya worked.
There are suggestions the incident may have been an attempt to set up Lebedev, by hardliners involved in a Kremlin turf war.
Sergey Topol, who wrote the story, said he based it on a contact in a firm allegedly bidding for a tender to host the wedding.
- INDEPENDENT
