Putin buys luxury mansions for rumoured lover using 'slush fund:' Report

Thousands of rumours, conspiracy theories, and reports about Russian President Vladimir Putin's lover, Alina Kabaeva, have surfaced since the former declared war on Ukraine last year in February.

The latest reports have claimed that Putin bought a lavish mansion worth £100 million in Moscow through a slush fund in Cyprus.

The claims have been made by a Russian opposition website called The Project. The publication further stated in its report that Putin also bought a flat for his 39-year-old girlfriend.

It is being reported that the Russian president is staying at the mansion with Kabaeva. The property is on Lake Valdai, roughly 250 miles (402 kilometres) northwest of Moscow. It is located just 800 metres (2,640 feet) from Valdai, Putin's best-guarded and most private residence.

According to The Project, the construction of the mansion began in 2020 on Putin's orders. The property is constructed entirely out of wood in the style of a Russian dacha. Dachas are quite common in Russia, especially among the affluent, and are year-round or seasonal second homes for Russian families often located outside the city.

It further stated that this is not the only property that has been bought by Putin for his girlfriend and the latter's relatives. The report went on to claim that Kabaeva and her children have often been seen on the premises of the mansions.

He has bought a number of properties for Kabaeva's family members too, including her grandmother, Anna Zatsepilina. Kabaeva has been living a secretive life. She reportedly owns several luxury properties across Russia, including a penthouse in Sochi on the Black Sea, according to a report in The Independent.

Earlier, several reports had claimed that Putin had hidden his lover and their four children at a luxurious private chalet in Switzerland as the war between Russia and Ukraine raged on.

"While Putin carries out his assault on Ukraine, attacking innocent citizens and causing a refugee crisis, his family is holed up in a very private and very secure chalet somewhere in Switzerland," Page 6 had reported last year. This was one of the several rumours that emerged about Putin's lover and his children in recent months.

Even though Putin has never confirmed anything about his personal life, it is said that he has hidden his four children—two sons and seven-year-old twin daughters—from his rumoured relationship with the former gymnast.

Kabaeva is one of the most decorated gymnasts in history and has even won two Olympic gold medals. Rumours of Putin and Kabaeva's alleged affair had started making rounds way back in 2008.

Kabaeva was once regarded as Russia's most eligible woman. Before Putin, she had only been linked to one other person, who happened to be a Georgian policeman.

The Russian newspaper The Moskovsky Korrespondent was shut down after it ran a story claiming that Putin was all set to marry Kabaeva. "I always disliked those obsessed with erotic fantasies who stick their flu-ridden noses in other people's lives," Putin had said in 2008.

"I have a private life in which I do not permit interference. It must be respected. I have always reacted negatively to those who with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies prowl into others' lives," he had said.

Putin has two other adult daughters, Maria, 36, and Katerina, 35, from his first marriage to former flight attendant Lyudmila Shkrebnev. The couple was married for 30 years before they decided to part ways in 2013.

Putin became the first Russian head of state in recent history to divorce while in office. He announced that his marriage with wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva was over during an interview on national television.

The announcement came amid rumours that Putin had been dating someone else for some years, and that someone happened to be former Olympic champion gymnast Kabaeva.