Vladimir Putin has been ‘shocked’ to discover his gymnast lover is pregnant again, sources have claimed.
The Russian leader, 69, is said to have been in a secret relationship with Olympic gold medallist Alina Kabaeva, 38, since 2008.
It has been claimed the couple already have two children together, which Putin has not publicly acknowledged.
Now, Russian news channel General SVR Telegram, which is believed to be run by a former Kremlin intelligence officer, has claimed Kabaeva is pregnant again.
It claimed: ‘Putin found out his mistress is yet again pregnant — and by the looks of it this wasn’t planned.
‘We have already reported that yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to eyewitnesses, looked depressed and somewhat aloof.
Vladimir Putin has been ‘shocked’ to discover his gymnast lover Alina Kabaeva is pregnant again, sources have claimed (pictured together at the Kremlin)
The Russian leader, 69, is said to have been in a secret relationship with Olympic gold medallist Alina Kabaeva, 38, since 2008
‘This is understandable as yesterday Putin learned that his long-term cohabitant and mother of his children, Alina Kabaeva, was pregnant for another, or rather, apparently, an extraordinary time.’
The same news channel has previously made claims about Putin’s health problems which have also been heavily rumoured inside Russia.
Putin and Kabaeva’s first son was born in secrecy in Switzerland amid huge security in 2015, according to a source linked to the obstetrician who was at the birth.
The second son was delivered in Moscow in 2019 with the same specialist flying to Russia for the birth, according to an investigation by Swiss broadsheet newspaper Sonntagszeitung.
Last week, a document revealed the EU is planning to impose sanctions on Kabaeva for her role in Kremlin propaganda.
Kabaeva is a late addition to the list of individuals targeted in a sixth package of measures against Russia in response to the war in Ukraine, after she last month likened the Soviet victory over Nazism in the Second World War to Putin’s invasion.
The proposal identifies Kabaeva as the chairwoman of the board of directors of the National Media Group, a holding company that owns significant shares in almost all major Russian state media that make up Putin’s propaganda machine.
Last month – after a four-month absence from the limelight – the former gymnast reappeared in Moscow with a new look (pictured)
It has been claimed the couple already have two children together, which Putin has not publicly acknowledged
The former gymnast and former Duma lawmaker is ‘closely associated with President Vladimir Putin,’ the document adds.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, citing US officials, Kabaeva and her family have gained personal fortune thanks to her connection to Putin’s inner circle.
The report cites classified US intelligence that names Kabaeva as a beneficiary of Putin’s wealth. US officials have held off sanctioning Kabaeva themselves out of concern that Putin might view it as a personal attack, The Guardian reported.
The source of the new report is said to be a personal friend of Kabaeva who also knows the obstetrician, an unnamed Soviet-born medic acquainted with Putin for more than three decades and a long-time Swiss citizen after emigrating from Russia.
The paper reported: ‘Our source says clearly: ‘Alina’s relationship with Putin existed. Their children – two sons – are Putin’s children. Alina had no other relationship. That would have been too dangerous for her’.’
The female doctor works at Clinica Sant’Anna in the Italian-speaking Ticino region of Switzerland where the first child was born.
The obstetrician had ‘maintained a trusting relationship with Putin’, said the report.
‘You had to keep the whole thing very discreet,’ the newspaper was told.
The source described Kabaeva as ‘a very pleasant woman.
‘She is a real sportswoman, very straight, without posturing. She came with her mother and sister, but without bodyguards. Despite this, a blanket of secrecy was thrown over the births.’
Putin hands Kabaeva a bouquet of flowers on the day she received the ‘For Merit to the Fatherland’ order in 2005
Kabaeva had also travelled multiple times to Switzerland before starting her relationship with Putin.
She was an ambassador for Longines watches from 1999 to 2008.
Their relationship was first reported when a Moscow newspaper alleged Putin had secretly divorced his wife of 30 years Lyudmila and was planning to marry Kabaeva.
The Kremlin denied the claims, and the newspaper was soon shut down. Five years later, Putin and his wife announced their separation.
Recently, rumours suggested that Kabaeva and her suspected young children were hiding out from the war at a reclusive Swiss chalet. However last month – after a four-month absence from the limelight – she reappeared in Moscow.
Kabaeva used the build-up to her ‘Alina 2022’ show in Moscow in April to make her first appearance in public since the war started in Ukraine. This followed rumours she had been hiding in Switzerland – or in a hi-tech Siberian nuclear bunker.
At the show itself she was filmed in front of the ‘Z’ symbols of Putin’s troops, which critics have likened to a swastika symbol.
Wearing a patriotic St George’s ribbon on her chest, Kabaeva delivered a rousing speech seemingly linking victory over Nazism in the Second World War to today’s events in Ukraine.
‘This theme, you see, this story, doesn’t only go into the past. It stays with us,’ she said. ‘This celebration is not just for the whole country, this is a holiday for every family.
‘Every family has a war story, and we mustn’t ever forget it, but pass it on from generation to generation.’
The event included some of the Soviet Union’s most patriotic songs in a celebration of the country’s victory over the Germans.
Putin pictured alongside Kabaeva at a gymnastics festival in Russia in 2001
The theme at her annual festival was unmistakably intended to boost patriotic support for Putin’s military operation in Ukraine.
She wore a wedding ring and a fluid silk fuchsia midi dress. Russians were struck by Kabaeva’s new look, sparking rumours of recent cosmetic surgery. Russian Cosmopolitan said ‘something has really changed in Kabaeva’s face’, adding that ‘the legendary athlete was noticeably prettier’.
Avoiding linking her to Putin, it said of a woman widely believed to be Russia’s unofficial first lady: ‘Alina Kabaeva is one of the most mysterious and secretive women in our country.
‘The gymnast almost never appears in public, does not [appear in] social networks, and it is not possible to accidentally see her on the street or in shopping centres.’
Telegram channel Tol’ko Nikomu – also choosing its words carefully to avoid the Russian censor – hinted that she and Putin share the same plastic surgeon.
‘A new rare appearance of Alina Kabaeva. This time she is dressed casually – and is again seen with a wedding ring.
‘And yes, the handwriting of the family beautician is quite notable.’
Alina Kabaeva at the 2015 ‘Alina’ gymnastics festival on May 21, 2015, in Moscow, Russia
Jailed Putin foe Alexei Navalny had previously demanded sanctions against Kabaeva.
He singled out Kabaeva’s National Media Group arguing that it was likely owned by Putin – who will be 70 this year – personally.
Her salary here has been estimated at almost £8million a year, compared with the average annual figure of £5,600.
Navalny posted from jail: ‘I want to remind you that the National Media Group, which owns the lion’s share of this apparatus of lies, undoubtedly belongs to Putin personally, and as such is even formally headed by Putin’s mistress Alina Kabaeva.’
He called her a Putin propagandist and said she should be treated as a ‘war criminal’.
Rumours first linked her romantically to Putin as long ago as 2008 when she was a pro-Kremlin MP.
The newspaper printing the story was rapidly closed down.
Putin – who in 2013 announced his divorce from wife Lyudmila, a former Aeroflot stewardess – has previously said: ‘I have a private life in which I do not permit interference. It must be respected.’
He deplored ‘those who with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies prowl into others’ lives’.
Kabaeva is on record as saying she had met a man who ‘I love very much’, gushing: ‘Sometimes you feel so happy that you even feel scared.’
In 2001 Kabaeva was temporarily banned from competing in rhythmic gymnastics after failing a doping test.
A year earlier she had won gold at the 2000 summer Olympics.
Once regarded as Russia’s most eligible woman, her only other suitor has been a married Georgian policeman, according to media reports. This relationship petered out in 2005 amid complaints of tabloid intrusion into her life.
She once posed almost nude for Maxim and was described as ‘full of sex’ by a photographer. There have been many reports of her wearing a wedding ring, but no records of a marriage.
She is reported to have a fleet of Maybach limousines at her disposal, and was seen surrounded by a squad of machine-gun toting security guards on visits to a Moscow cafe, likely indicating she qualifies for state-level security.
The dictator of neighbouring Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko hinted that Putin’s divorce decision came about because Kabaeva ‘put pressure on the president’.
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