The daughter of the Russian defense minister and her ‘anti-war’ husband have separated, sparking rumors that Vladimir Putin was involved.
The daughter of defense minister Sergei Shoigu, Ksenia Shoigu, 32, has long seemed content in her marriage to fitness expert Alexey Stolyarov, 33.
However, the couple startled their hundreds of millions of fans by announcing their breakup to the Russian news channel 360° last Saturday.
“It’s been a while since we were a couple.” However, we are also extremely close friends and partners,’ Shoigu remarked.
Stolyarov continued, “We have been friends for a very long time,” adding that their relationship ended “several months ago.”
They are planning to spend more time with their daughter, he said. “We’re headed to her right away!” We still work as a team, and we also have sporting projects in the works,’ Stolyarov said.
They were conversing at the 2019 Race of Heroes obstacle course race in Alabino, a city near Moscow.
Before welcoming their daughter in 2021, Shoigu and Stolyarov spent years hiding their marriage.
The couple told 360° that over time, their competing and demanding work schedules drove a gap between them and caused their breakup.
Nevertheless, considering Stolyarov’s history of conflicts with Putin’s pro-war authorities and sympathizers, Russian social media users were unpersuaded.
‘Everyone in the Kremlin knew that Shoigu’s opponents took samples of Stolyarov’s [online posts] into Putin’s office multiple times,’ a Russian user of social media claimed.
The Russian president allegedly “twice asked” Shoigu to “shut [Stolyarov] up,” according to the Narrarivy Telegram channel.
According to the source, Ksenia recently discussed getting a divorce and decided to openly disavow Stolyarov.
Formerly the son-in-law of Putin’s devoted defence minister, Stolyarov declined to enlist in Russia’s conflict with Ukraine.
When he liked an anti-war Instagram post by Yuri Dud, a Russian journalist the government had labelled a “foreign agent” for his posts criticising Putin’s war machine, he came under fire in February.
According to the article, according to the Russian news outlet Meduza, “Putin and his entourage unleashed bloody and pointless war exactly a year ago.”
Stolyarov swiftly deleted the like while denying having ever expressed an interest in it.
Poligon.media claimed he had conducted interviews with two other Dud figures, including the film filmmaker Alexander Molochnikov, who had left Russia after criticising Putin.
Stolyarov did this while posting pictures of himself on the Russian social media site VK driving a luxurious car and vacationing in Dubai when other men his age were dying or being hurt in battle.
This did not impress his followers who questioned why he was not already on the “frontlines” and labelled him as “unpatriotic.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the short mutinous mercenary organisation Wagner, stoked the flames in February when he asked that Stolyarov be drafted.
Progozhin posted on Telegram that “it is necessary to catch Stolyarov and bring him to me,” even urging that Ukrainian military “rape” Stolyarov.
While Stolyarov’s opinions on the war are still hazy, his opinions of Shoigu have been a little bit more lucid.
He is the sweetest and most upbeat guy I know. In 2021, he declared to the online Russian entertainment programme Night Contact, “I have never met a person like this.”