by Marco Imarisio
The Joe Biden administration has prepared a package of sanctions against the 39-year-old former Olympic gymnast who allegedly had three children with the Russian president: the move would be deemed an unacceptable escalation by the Kremlin
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MOSCOW – “Every family has a war history”. There’s a woman who doesn’t have a role, who doesn’t even have an image because she appears as little as possible, but who is taken as a measure of the possible irreversibility of relations between Russia and the West. Alina Kabaeva is the point of no return.
If you get hit by the sanctions, it means the United States and Europe will lose any chance of regaining at least formal ties with Vladimir Putin. The 38-year-old rhythmic gymnast and model, former Olympic and world champion, is best known not for her triumphs but for being the Russian president’s closest person, the companion who, according to unconfirmed rumours, would have given him a new life and three children. She said she was expatriated to Lugano with her children shortly before the start of the so-called Special Military Operation, in a chalet surrounded by cameras and security guards. However, last Saturday she performed again in Moscow at the VTB Arena as godmother of a national competition of the best young Russian gymnasts named after her.
At the end of the competitions, Kabaeva was invited to give the athletes some tips for their future careers. And she wasn’t shy about giving a speech that went well beyond sports. In fact, he’s kind of used the sport to make it a metaphor for the current situation. “What is happening with our athletes being banned from international competition is one of the most shameful pages in modern history. When civilians were being killed in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya and Syria, the West never had any problems and never sanctioned any state involved in the destruction of those countries.”
Those are the same words that Putin, the man with whom his name has been associated for years, often repeats. The former athlete, who was then dubbed “the lightest woman alive” for her ethereal style, doesn’t do things by halves when she speaks. And, how could it be otherwise, he has never hidden what is happening in Ukraine. “Instead,” he added with a wry expression, “international sports authorities exploded with anger when our Russia decided to protect Donbass and Lugansk from the Nazis rampaging in those regions.” But they must quiet their souls, he concluded. “Because Russia was and will be a great sporting power and you can’t do anything about it.” Kabaeva spoke from behind a large placard that read “Z.”
The latest news about the war in Ukraine
Putin is officially celibate after his divorce from his first wife, Ludmila Shkrebneva, in 2014.
They married in 1983 and have two daughters, Maria and Katerina, aged 36 and 35.
The relationship with the former gymnast became public knowledge in 2008 when the Russky Reporter newspaper, which closed the following month, spoke about it. At that time, just over a year ago, Kabaeva had been elected to the Duma, the lower branch of Russia’s parliament, nominated by United Russia, the president’s party. In 2014, she was appointed to chair the board of directors of NMG, the country’s largest publishing group, founded by 70-year-old oligarch Yuri Kovalchuk, whom the United States considers “Putin’s closest adviser,” imbued with strong anti-Western thinking and anti-liberal, too known for his “conspiratorial” thinking, which is reflected in his television talk shows. That year she was the official torch bearer at the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. Nothing unusual, because she is considered a legend of Russian gymnastics, holder of one Olympic gold and nine world golds. That could have been ten if she hadn’t been stripped of her victory in Madrid in 2001 because of a doping scandal. On this occasion, the title was awarded to the runner-up. Ironically, she was a Ukrainian athlete.
In 2018, Kabaeva disappears from public life, except for brief appearances related to her previous sporting activity. He earned $12 million a year. Nothing has ever been leaked about his relationship with the President. They never performed together, but it was never a secret that they were very close. The former gymnast has three young children who live with her. There is little doubt as to her father’s identity, although she and the Kremlin have always denied any involvement by the president.
Precisely for this reason, in order not to reach the ultimate breaking point, the United States used the “grown-up daughters” formula in imposing personal sanctions on Putin and his family, pretending to ignore the current sentimental situation of the Russian president and omitting it What is considered his new family and current partner, who exhibited a ring on her right hand at the VTK Arena, the one on which the wedding ring is worn in Russia.
Now, according to The Wall Street Journal, the US is considering imposing ad personam sanctions on him, as the Ukrainian government has been clamoring for. Nothing is decided yet, but there is a possibility that it will happen. And the US Treasury seems to be aware that there would be consequences because Putin could react “extremely aggressively”.
Alexei Venediktov, founder of the now defunct Echo radio in Moscow, told Corriere years ago that the Russian president, with whom he was on good terms at the time, once said to him: “You can write whatever you want about me, but my family is taboo, nobody should touch it ».
There are sanctions against oil, those against gas are seen as the last weapon in the hands of the West. And then there is Alina Kabaeva.
April 25, 2022 (Change April 25, 2022 | 15:37)
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