Famed Russian mystic Dzhuna dies at 65 | News | DW.DE | 08.06.2015

I find this interesting in light of this article I posted last month, Black magic on Red Square:

Welcome, then, to the strange and unsettling world that lies behind the façade of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. A country where faith healers and psychics enjoy as much, if not more, respect and trust as doctors and psychoanalysts. A country where a high-profile, Kremlin-linked ideologue is as well-versed in the writings of early 20th century British occultists as he is in modern political theory. A country where belief in magic is still very much alive.

Although she called herself the “Assyrian Princess” and was said to have predicted "the Chernobyl disaster and the end of the Soviet era,"  her popularity did not rise until "the breakup of the Soviet Union."Able to "help" others, in the end she could not help herself.

The self-proclaimed psychic healer, whose real name was Yevgenia Davitashvili, died in Moscow on Monday morning, after slipping into a coma caused by circulation problems.

According to several Russian news outlets, Dzhuna had treated top Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, who died in 1992, as well as the famous directors Andrei Tarkovsky and Federico Fellini. Hollywood star Robert de Niro is also reported to be among her clients, according to Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.

She also gave consultations to Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, her ex-husband Igor Matviyenko told the AFP news agency. Matviyenko called Davitashvili "the secret healer of the Kremlin," likening her to a "female version of Rasputin in the 1980s."

"Almost all the Politburo came to our wedding in central Moscow," Matviyenko said.

Russian lawmaker Oleg Finko called the astrologist "extraordinary," saying that he, too, used her services,,,

Famed Russian mystic Dzhuna dies at 65 | News | DW.DE | 08.06.2015