Putin ‘wife beater and drunk letch’, German documentary claims 

A German documentary has claimed Russian leader Vladimir Putin regularly subjected his ex-wife to domestic abuse and was seen as a drunken letch by his Soviet superiors in his early days.

The controversial documentary also claims Putin is terrified of growing old, underwent face surgery in 2010 and is severely paranoid about being poisoned.

Putin the Man, made by ZDF television and shown for the first time this week, claims his divorced wife Lyudmila was regularly subjected to violence.