Raisa and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989 - changing the Soviet image
Margaret Thatcher famously got on well with Mikhail Gorbachev and his fashionable wife Raisa. Secretive Soviet leaders had previously kept their wives and families out of the limelight. But how visible are the post-Soviet "first ladies" today?
In the late 1980s Raisa Gorbachev, impeccably dressed and eloquent, became a darling of the Western media.
She was disliked by many back home though, for exactly the qualities which made her popular abroad. In fancy, bespoke outfits and often in the media spotlight, Raisa's image contrasted with the tough reality of her crumbling communist country.
Naina Yeltsin, the wife of Russia's first post-Soviet president, was less flamboyant than her predecessor, but still had a distinctive image and voice.
Yet the current presidential wives in the Slavic-majority states appear to be camera-shy, in the old Soviet tradition.
'Authoritarian monarch'
Lyudmila Putin's public profile hardly matches the global role played by her husband as president of Russia.
Russia's first couple were last seen in public together during Vladimir Putin's inauguration in 2012
She did recently feature on the cover of a glossy magazine. But the three-times first lady is seen in public so seldom that her appearance at an awards ceremony in late March, her first since Vladimir Putin's inauguration in May 2012, caused quite a stir in the Russian media.
Her invisibility has provoked much media comment and speculation.
Russian independent journalist Mikhail Fishman insists Mrs Putin's presence "equals zero". He suggests that having a family helps a ruler to be seen as open and down-to-earth, while President Putin, an "authoritarian monarch", wants to be viewed as aloof and God-like.
Memorable speech
Ukraine's Lyudmila Yanukovych - wife of the president - is almost as invisible.
Reports say the first lady is living as a recluse in Donetsk, the stronghold of her husband's party, making rare appearances at regional events, and is almost never seen in Kiev.
Ukraine's first lady is remembered for her speech scorning the Orange Revolution leaders
Even before Viktor Yanukovych was elected president in 2010, she had vanished from the public eye.
Her most memorable public speech was made at a rally during the Orange Revolution in 2004, when her husband, the then prime minister, was vying for the presidential job.
Her beret awry and language clumsy, she accused the rival pro-Western camp of supplying their supporters with US-made felt boots and drug-laced oranges. The remarks were so extreme that they are still remembered, and ridiculed, almost a decade on.
The embarrassment caused by that speech is the likely reason for her disappearance, suggests a prominent Ukrainian journalist, Sergei Leshchenko.
He adds that the "first lady" concept - a feature of US politics - has not taken root in the former Soviet republics, because most of their leaders were born and raised in the USSR and share its mindset.
First son
Belarusian expert Valeriy Karbalevich says the Soviet tradition of "not putting the wives of leaders on display" is deeply rooted in the public consciousness.
Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus is frequently accompanied by his youngest son Nikolai
In Belarus, ruled in authoritarian Soviet-era style, there is no first lady. President Alexander Lukashenko has in recent years been accompanied even at official ceremonies by his young son Nikolai.
The boy attended his father's inauguration and accompanied him on numerous foreign visits, most recently to Venezuela to pay last respects to the country's populist leader, the late Hugo Chavez.
The fair-haired and neatly attired Nikolai, never uttering a word by his father's side, could almost be seen as a replacement for the first lady.
Mr Lukashenko is now often seen in the company of women much younger than himself, opposition websites claim.
Eastern paradox
Paradoxically the first ladies in Central Asia, a region considered patriarchal and conservative, enjoy rather more prominence.
Tatyana Karimova of Uzbekistan is eclipsed by her controversial, jet-setting elder daughter Gulnara in the media. But Tatyana engages in what is presented as charity work, and accompanies her husband, President Islam Karimov, on visits.
Azerbaijan's Mehriban Aliyeva is said to be more popular than her husband
President Karimov holds Uzbekistan in an iron grip, smothering any dissent, and this publicity for his family serves to underline their clan power.
In neighbouring Kazakhstan first lady Sara Nazarbayeva, according to her official biography, has for many years been overseeing several charitable projects and is the author of six books.
Azerbaijan's Mehriban Aliyeva, a dazzling fashionista, is arguably the most prominent among the eastern first ladies. With her hand in a variety of cultural and "charitable" programmes she has arguably overshadowed her husband, President Ilham Aliyev.
But the ruling family's image is carefully managed and human rights groups accuse the authorities of stifling democracy and jailing dissidents. Azerbaijan also gets a poor rating in the corruption index compiled by Transparency International.
Trained as a doctor and now an MP, Mrs Aliyeva is active in the ruling New Azerbaijan Party. A few years ago, there was much talk that she could succeed her spouse in 2013, but the speculation has now subsided.
Wikileaks cables have revealed the first lady in a less flattering light, as seen by Western journalists. But with the media in her country tightly controlled, Mrs Aliyeva can still enjoy a high profile unperturbed, whatever the allegations swirling around her.
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