Alina Kabaeva, the former gymnast and alleged lover of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has admitted in a 2006 TV interview that he is her “ideal man”. New photographs show her supposed home with their two children, a luxury forest estate guarded by the FSO security service in Valdai, 250 miles northwest of Moscow. Despite Putin’s denial of any relationship, investigations by Russian journalists reveal Kabaeva’s role in the web of corruption surrounding Putin’s rule. Kabaeva and her relatives or associates are said to own or control two dozen properties, including the Valdai palace, while fundraising and state support also fund the couple. Kabaeva was once an MP in Putin’s United Russia party and is now the nominal head of a media group owned by a crony oligarch. In 2001, Kabaeva tested positive for a banned diuretic and was stripped of six world championship medals. Kabaeva’s mother predicted her daughter’s relationship with Putin in 2004, when she said that the paparazzi scrutiny of Kabaeva’s relationship with a Georgian policeman was unnecessary.
in Russie