Dzhuna dead: Faith healer to the Kremlin and Russian celebrities, dies aged 65

The mystic, real name Yevgenia Davitashvili, was also rumoured to have treated director Federico Fellini and actor Robert de Niro

Dzhuna Davitashvili was described by her ex-husband as a female version of Rasputin (EPA)

A Russian astrologist and psychic healer to Leonid Brezhnev, who once claimed she had the power to prolong life by 100 years, has died, aged 65.

Dzhuna, whose real name was Yevgenia Davitashvili, was rumoured to have been summoned by Soviet security services to Brezhev’s death bed, but was unable to grant him another century’s life.

Ms Davitashvili, famous for advising Russian celebrities, was also rumoured to have treated the director Federico Fellini and Robert de Niro. The Russian actor Stanislav Sadalskiy broke the news of the mystic’s death on his blog on Monday.

Igor Matviyenko, a pop producer and her former husband, said Ms Davitashvili “was the secret healer of the Kremlin; she was a female version of Rasputin”, adding that he was married to her “for a month” in the late 1980s. The leftist MP Oleg Finko called the astrologist “extraordinary,” and admitted that he had used her services: “She was an honest person. If she couldn’t help, she would not take the case.”

According to Mr Matviyenko, Kremlin limos were often seen outside her apartment, which became a place where “Kremlin leaders and artists rubbed shoulders”. He said: “Almost all the Politburo came to our wedding.” The healer, born into a small ethnic group of Assyrian Christians, claimed to have foreseen the Chernobyl disaster as well as the end of the Soviet era.