VLADIMIR PUTIN’S alleged “mistress” has reappeared with a “new look” similar to the puffy-looking president, it has been claimed.
Olympic gold-medal winning gymnast Alina Kabaeva, 38, was rumoured to have been “hiding out” in a Swiss chalet or a Siberian nuclear bunker.
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But this week she bizarrely resurfaced at a junior rhythmic gymnastics rehearsal in Moscow.
Pictures show her at the city’s VTB Arena ahead of the annual Alina Festival charitable event scheduled for Saturday.
The snaps immediately sparked speculation that she had used the same cosmetic surgeon as puffy-looking Putin amid claims of botox and fillers.
It follows a raft of rumours that the tryant is showing signs of debilitating illness.
Women’s magazine Russian Cosmopolitan said “something has really changed in Kabaeva’s face”.
They added that “the legendary athlete was noticeably prettier”.
The mag also hinted at her being Russia’s unofficial first lady: “Alina Kabaeva is one of the most mysterious and secretive women in our country.
“The gymnast almost never appears in public, does not [appear in] social networks, and it is not possible to accidentally see her on the street or in shopping centres.”
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While Telegram channel Tol’ko Nikomu hinted that she and Putin share the same plastic surgeon.
They chimed: “The handwriting of the family beautician is quite notable.”
Putin has allegedly been romantically linked to the gymnast for well over a decade.
There have been many reports of her wearing a wedding ring, but no records of a marriage.
But she is even believed to have four young children with Mad Vlad, 69.
When the war with Ukraine erupted, the Russian tyrant holed them up in “a very private and very secure chalet in Switzerland” a source told Page Six.
“Alina has two young boys and twin girls with Putin who were born in Switzerland,” the source added.
A petition demanding she was thrown out by the Swiss authorities garnered 75,000 signatures, demanding that “it’s time you reunite Eva Braun with her Führer”.
I have a private life in which I do not permit interference. It must be respected
Vladimir Putin
Rumours first linked Kabaeva to Putin as long ago as 2008 when she was an MP for President Putin’s Unied Russia party.
She was a Member of the Russian Parliament between 2007 and 2014 and in 2004 posed almost nude for lads mag Maxim .
The former gymnast was described as “full of sex” by a photographer.
Putin – who in 2013 announced his divorce from wife Lyudmila, a former Aeroflot stewardess – has previously said: “I have a private life in which I do not permit interference. It must be respected.”
Kabaeva is on record as saying she had met a man who “I love very much”, gushing: “Sometimes you feel so happy that you even feel scared.”
Once regarded as Russia’s most “eligible” and “flexible” woman, her only other suitor has been a married Georgian policeman, according to media reports.
Kabaeva – who controls National Media Group, one of the largest pro-Kremlin Moscow media organisations – has avoided Western sanctions.
Jailed Putin foe Alexei Navalny has demanded sanctions against her and says she should be treated as a “war criminal”
He argues Kabaeva’s firm – which the alleged mistress reportedly earns £8 million a year from – is likely owned by Putin.
Earlier this month Kabaeva’s picture dramatically vanished from the firms website – NMG offered no answers.
In 2001 Kabaeva was temporarily banned from competing in rhythmic gymnastics after failing a doping test.
A year earlier she had won gold at the 2000 summer Olympics.
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