‘Putin’s “lover” has two new luxury homes in NATO-member Turkey’, Russian opposition source claims

Vladimir Putin’s rumoured lover has two new luxury homes in the NATO member state Turkey, according to a Russian opposition source.

Olympic gold-medallist Alina Kabaeva, 39, now owns a summer house in southern Turkey and a house in Istanbul, it has been claimed. 

The properties were arranged in Turkey via an intermediary and close aide of the country’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, claimed Russian-born Israeli businessman Leonid Nevzlin, 62, a former co-owner of oil giant Yukos, and a leading Putin foe.

Kabaeva is widely believed to be the Russian strongman’s mistress and mother to four of Putin’s children whom he has never officially recognised.

Russian-born Israeli businessman Leonid Nevzlin made the claims

An intermediary ‘through a close aide of Erdogan…. organised the purchase of a summer house for Alina Kabaeva in southern Turkey and a house in Istanbul,’ said Nevzlin. 

He claimed the Turkish leader had ‘allocated’ his presidential guard to the expensive ‘homes’. However, no specific details were given concerning the supposed properties.

During the current war in Ukraine, Kabaeva has been sanctioned by Britain, the EU and Canada for her supposed close personal links to Putin.

There is speculation that she has several children with the Kremlin leader despite previous official denials of a relationship.

Nevzlin gave no specific evidence for his claim over the two alleged homes.

In April, he alleged that Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu was ‘out of the game’ in the war after suffering a ‘massive heart attack’.

Later Shoigu played a prominent part in the 9 May Victory Day parade in Moscow, although his visibility has been low in recent weeks.

Olympic gold-medallist Alina Kabaeva, 39, now owns a summer house in southern Turkey and a house in Istanbul, it has been claimed

Nevzlin is a Russian-born Israeli businessman, investor, and philanthropist, who claims to have prominent contacts in Moscow.

He held high-ranking positions at Group Menatep and its subsidiary, the Yukos Oil Company.

The claim comes amid evidence that Kabaeva uses a £32.6 million Falcon 7X that flies under the tail number RA-09009.

It is leased to Russair carries high-profile passengers protected by the Federal Security Service, according to an OCCRP investigation.

Kabaeva is rumoured to have two or three children with Putin, 69, and there has been an unconfirmed claim that she is again pregnant.

The Russian leader, 69, is said to have been in a secret relationship with Olympic gold medallist Alina Kabaeva, 38, since 2008

Putin was said to be ‘subdued and withdrawn’ over the news, reported General SVR Telegram channel which has been separately ahead of the game in claiming the Russian leader is suffering from cancer and Parkinson’s disease.

She has not commented on the sanctions imposed on her nor her closeness to Putin.

Earlier there were rumours she had a Swiss bolthole, but the authorities denied she was in Switzerland.

She has been seen twice this month in Sochi and St Petersburg.

A former loyalist MP, she is now a media mogul, heading a company owning pro-Putin TV channels and newspapers, for which she is paid an estimated £8 million a year.