Vladimir Putin
IN PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) attends an Orthodox Christmas service at a local cathedral of the village Otradnoye in Voronezh region January 7, 2015. Most Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas according to the Julian calendar on January 7, two weeks after most western Christian churches that abide by the Gregorian calendar. REUTERS/Alexei Druzhinin/RIA Novosti/Kremlin

A German TV programme, aired over ZDF, titled “Putin the Man” claimed that the Russian prime minister was a wife beater. It also said that Vladimir Putin had cosmetic surgery which explains his “young dynamic appearance.”

Aired on Tuesday, the documentary, annotated by biographer Ben Judah, provided more interesting details on the former KGB whom a Pentagon report separately claimed is suffering from some form of autism. Mr Putin reportedly lived through five assassination tries, eats cottage cheese for breakfast, sleeps late and works only in the afternoon, reports the Independent.

Because of his sleeping habits, Mr Putin is often late for appointments that his ministers often wait for him for hours and at one point Queen Elizabeth had to wait for 30 minutes, according to a Kremlin insider.

Clearly, the most controversial of the allegations is that the 62-year-old prime minister beat his ex-wife Ludmyla, a former flight attendant of Aeroflot, while also having extramarital affairs on the side. The account about the physical abuse came from a KGB employee who befriended the erstwhile first lady.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the allegations of wife-beating was based on compiled reports about Mr Putin by a German spy agency when he was still the deputy of KGB. The couple, who has two adult daughters, divorced in 2014.

Much of the information also came out in an article in the German daily Berliner Zeitung which was based on documents that Erich Schmidt-Eenboom, a BND expert, found, reports the Telegraph.

The report also said that Mr Putin, when he was a spy in Dresden from 1985 to 1990, was reportedly “lazy and drunken.” During this time, Ludmyla recounted an incident during the birthday of her father when her husband grabbed her fiercely, hugged and kissed her while he was drunk.

Experts say that consequences of wife-beating includes physical disabilities, chronic health problems, mental illness, inability to create healthy relationships and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman of Mr Putin, denied the allegations and dismissed the stories as “complete nonsense.”

To contact the writer, email: v.hernandez@ibtimes.com.au