Us Magazine has published a report claiming Russian president Vladimir Putin is dating Rupert Murdoch’s ex-wife Wendi Deng in their “new couple alert” section, although the report also concedes that “reports of the pair have been floating around for years, ever since their respective divorces in 2014 and 2013.”

According to the report, a Putin insider says the relationship between 63-year-old Putin and 47-year old Cheng has become “serious.”

Putin ended a 30-year marriage to the mother of his two adult daughters, Lyudmila Putina, in 2014, after which he was romantically linked to Russian gymnast Alina Kabaeva. Kabaeva was rumored to have secretly borne Putin a love child at a Swiss hospital last year, a rumor the Kremlin dismissed as a “journalistic hoax.”

Deng’s rumored connection to Putin seems a bit tenuous, as Us admits she has “yet to be spotted looking romantic with the Russian leader,” although they have some very wealthy mutual friends. Deng divorced Murdoch after 14 years of marriage in 2013, supposedly because he grew suspicious she was having an affair with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Just about all of the many media reports buzzing about a Putin-Deng relationship trace back to Us Weekly – which, as noted above, admits it is an unsubstantiated rumor, although Vanity Fair says that rumor has “apparently been traveling among a certain set for some time.”

Vanity Fair is not a fan of this particular romance, saying it is a good thing there are no photos of them together, because “that level of self-serving malevolence in one single frame would likely crumble the earth onto itself.” It also describes the idea of the couple as “almost too deliciously good and despicably evil to exist in reality.”

As for why the long-rumored romance is suddenly big news, Vanity Fair speculates it might be Rupert Murdoch’s recent marriage to Mick Jagger’s old girlfriend, Jerry Hall.

VF wishes Deng well, noting that “everyone deserves love… even if it means settling for a former KGB spy accused of heinous crimes,” who coincidentally might be the richest man in the world, with a net worth of over $200 billion.