Yana Rudkovskaya joked about Tutberidze's 'secret crush' on Plushenko

Producer Yana Rudkovskaya, in an interview with Sport-Express, jokingly attributed the criticism of Evgeni Plushenko from Eteri Tutberidze's team to the coach's 'secret crush.' She also said she is ready to end the years-long standoff between the two camps, provided there is mutual respect.

Otabek YusupovFirst published on tafs uz 5 November 2026 at 21:272 min read

The key facts

Rudkovskaya jokingly suggested that Tutberidze is 'secretly in love' with Plushenko, explaining her camp's attention to her husband's work this way
The producer said she is ready for reconciliation with mutual respect and cited choreographer Gleikhengauz's refusal as an example
The standoff between the camps has continued since 2019; in 2020, Trusova and Kostornaia moved to Plushenko

A joke against the backdrop of a years-long conflict

Producer Yana Rudkovskaya in an interview with Sport-Express joked that coach Eteri Tutberidze may be 'secretly in love' with her husband, two-time Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko. This, in her view, explained the heightened attention the rival coaching team paid to her husband's work. 'Maybe Eteri Georgievna is simply secretly in love with my husband? If so, I forgive her everything! But she won't manage to steal him. Sorry, darling, no chance here,' Rudkovskaya said with a laugh.

Readiness for reconciliation and mutual reproaches

At the same time, Rudkovskaya stressed that she is ready to end the years-long standoff between the coaching camps, but for reconciliation both sides must show mutual respect. According to her, her family does not seek to fuel the conflict and merely responds to criticism, while Plushenko himself stopped paying attention to his colleagues' remarks long ago. As an example of an attempt to mend relations, she cited a story involving Daniil Gleikhengauz, a choreographer on Tutberidze's team: allegedly, Plushenko offered to have him create a program for his son Alexander, but the specialist declined.

Context of the standoff

The conflict between the Plushenko and Tutberidze camps has been going on since 2019; one of the triggers was figure skaters moving between schools — in 2020, Alexandra Trusova and Alena Kostornaia left Tutberidze's group for the Angels of Plushenko academy. Earlier, Life.ru reportedthat Tutberidze explained her harsh statements about Plushenko's coaching abilities by saying she had doubted his status as a coach back in 2021. It should be noted that all the quoted statements come from one side of the conflict — the Tutberidze team's position on Rudkovskaya's joke is not present in the publication.