Rupert Murdoch’s reported new GF Elena Zhukova was spotted cruising around the Med with him this week, less than five months after the nonagenarian abruptly ended his brief engagement to evangelist radio host Ann Lesley Smith. The fact that Zhukova is the ex mother-in-law of Roman Abramovich prompted speculation that Murdoch could be building contacts in Moscow – which would add to his connections in China, thanks to ex-wife Wendi Deng. But Elena, 66, may not be a hotline to the Kremlin. She’s lived in the US for 30 years and her ex-husband, old-school oligarch Alexander Borisovich Zhukov, is not to be confused with the chairman of the Russian state Duma Alexander Dmitrievich Zhukov. Zhukova and Murdoch met at a family party (thrown by Deng – how very modern) thanks to her daughter, Dasha, who divorced Chelsea’s former owner in 2018. Biochemist Elena left Russia in 1991 with a wave of scientists fleeing the Soviet Union. She moved Dasha into a one-bedroom flat in Houston, working at Baylor College of Medicine then UCLA where she researched diabetes, cell biology and cancer treatments. After Dasha split from Abramovich and joined New York society, she bumped into fellow art collector Deng. Elena moved east to look after her grandchildren, Wendi stepped in and… well, given Deng and Zhukova’s at best low-level links to their home countries’ power bases, Rupert could be accused of sleeping his way to the middle.
