Vladimir Putin was “shocked” to find out his lover is pregnant again, sources have claimed.
The Russian leader, 69, is said to have been in a secret relationship with Olympic champion Alina Kabaeva, 38, since 2008.
It has been claimed that the couple already have two children together, which Putin has not publicly admitted.
Now Russian news channel General SVR Telegram, believed to be run by a former Kremlin intelligence officer, has claimed Kabaeva is pregnant again.
It said: “Putin has found out that his beloved is pregnant once again – and by the looks of it, that wasn’t planned.
“We previously reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin looked depressed and somewhat distant yesterday, according to eyewitnesses.
Vladimir Putin was “shocked” to find out 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 champion Alina Kabaeva, 38, since 2008
“This is understandable, given that Putin learned yesterday that his longtime partner and mother of his children, Alina Kabaeva, was pregnant for another, or rather apparently for an extraordinary, period.”
The same news channel has previously made claims about Putin’s health problems that have also been hotly rumored in Russia.
Putin and Kabaeva’s first son was secretly born in Switzerland in 2015 under tight security, according to a source connected to the obstetrician who was at the birth.
The second son was born in Moscow in 2019, with the same specialist flying to Russia for the birth, according to an investigation by the Swiss newspaper Sonntagszeitung.
Last week, a document revealed that the EU plans to impose sanctions on Kabaeva for her role in Kremlin propaganda.
Kabaeva is a late addition to the list of people targeted in a sixth package of measures against Russia in response to the war in Ukraine, after last month she compared the Soviet victory over Nazism in World War II to Putin’s invasion.
The proposal identifies Kabaeva as the CEO of the National Media Group, a holding company that owns significant stakes in nearly all of Russia’s major state media outlets that make up Putin’s propaganda machine.
Last month – after a four-month absence from the spotlight – the former gymnast resurfaced in Moscow with a new look (pictured).
It has been claimed that the couple already have two children together, which Putin has not publicly admitted
The former gymnast and former Duma deputy is “closely linked to President Vladimir Putin,” the document said.
According to a Wall Street Journal report citing US officials, Kabaeva and her family have acquired personal wealth thanks to their connections to Putin’s inner circle.
The report cites secret US intelligence agencies naming Kabaeva as a beneficiary of Putin’s wealth. US officials have stopped sanctioning Kabaeva himself out of concern that Putin might see 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 medical doctor who has known Putin for more than three decades and is a longtime Swiss citizen after emigrating from Russia is.
The newspaper reported: “Our source clearly states: ‘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 doctor works at Clinica Sant’Anna in Italian-speaking Ticino, Switzerland, where the first child was born.
The obstetrician “maintained a trusting relationship with Putin,” the report said.
“You had to keep the whole thing very discreet,” the newspaper was told.
The source described Kabaeva as “a very pleasant woman.
“She’s a real athlete, very straight, no pose. She came with her mother and sister, but without a bodyguard. Even so, a veil of secrecy was thrown over the births.’
Putin presents Kabaeva with a bouquet of flowers on the day she received the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland” in 2005
Kabaeva also traveled to Switzerland several times before beginning her relationship with Putin.
From 1999 to 2008 she was ambassador for Longines watches.
Their relationship was first reported when a Moscow newspaper claimed that Putin had secretly divorced his 30-year-old wife 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 there were rumors that Kabaeva and her alleged young children were hiding out from the war in a remote Swiss chalet. However, last month – after a four-month absence from the spotlight – she reappeared in Moscow.
Kabaeva used the preparation for her show “Alina 2022” in Moscow in April to make her first public appearance in Ukraine since the beginning of the war. Rumors followed that she was hiding in Switzerland – or in a Siberian high-tech 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 ribbon of St. George on her chest, Kabaeva delivered a stirring speech that seemingly linked the victory over Nazism in World War II to current events in Ukraine.
“This issue, you see, this story isn’t just about 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 must never forget it, but pass it on from generation to generation.”
The event featured some of the Soviet Union’s most patriotic songs celebrating the country’s victory over the Germans.
Putin alongside Kabaeva at a gymnastics festival in Russia in 2001
The motto of their annual festival was unmistakably aimed at boosting patriotic support for Putin’s military operation in Ukraine.
She wore a wedding ring and a fuchsia midi dress made of flowing silk. Russians were impressed with Kabaeva’s new look, sparking rumors of recent cosmetic surgery. The Russian cosmopolitan said “something has really changed in Kabaeva’s face,” adding that “the legendary athlete was noticeably prettier.”
Without connecting her to Putin, it was said of a woman who is widely considered to be the unofficial first lady of Russia: “Alina Kabaeva is one of the most mysterious and secretive women of our country.
“The gymnast almost never performs in public, doesn’t he [appear in] social networks and it is not possible to accidentally see them on the street or in shopping malls.’
Telegram channel Tol’ko Nikomu – who also chose his words carefully to avoid Russian censorship – hinted that she and Putin share the same plastic surgeon.
‘A new rare performance by Alina Kabaeva. This time she is dressed casually – and again seen with a wedding ring.
“And yes, the family beautician’s handwriting is remarkable.”
Alina Kabaeva at the 2015 Gymnastics Festival “Alina” on May 21, 2015 in Moscow, Russia
Jailed Putin opponent Alexei Navalny had previously called for sanctions against Kabaeva.
He singled out Kabaeva’s National Media Group, arguing that it probably belonged personally to Putin, who turns 70 this year.
Her salary here has been estimated at nearly £8million a year, compared to the average annual figure of £5,600.
Navalny wrote from prison: “I would like to remind you that the National Media Group, which owns the lion’s share of this apparatus of lies, is undoubtedly owned by 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.”
Rumors first linked her romantically with Putin in 2008, when she was a pro-Kremlin MP.
The newspaper that printed the story was quickly shut down.
Putin – who in 2013 announced his divorce from his wife Lyudmila, a former Aeroflot flight attendant – previously said: “I have a personal life in which I must not allow interference. It has to be respected.’
He pityed “those who invade the lives of others with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies”.
Kabaeva says on record that she met a man who “I love very much,” and enthuses, “Sometimes you feel so happy that you’re even scared.”
In 2001, Kabaeva was temporarily banned from participating in rhythmic gymnastics after failing a doping test.
A year earlier she had won gold at the 2000 Summer Olympics.
According to media reports, her only other suitor was a married Georgian policeman who was once considered Russia’s most desirable woman. That relationship ended in 2005 due to complaints about tabloids invading her life.
She once posed almost naked for Maxim and was described as “full of sex” by a photographer. There were many reports of her wearing a wedding ring, but no record of a marriage.
She is said to have a fleet of Maybach limousines at her disposal and has been spotted surrounded by a group of machine-gunned security guards on visits to a Moscow cafe, likely indicating that she is qualified for state-level security.
Neighboring Belarus’ dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, has hinted that Putin’s divorce decision came about because Kabaeva “put pressure on the president.”