Rumours Vladimir Putin fathered child with lover Alina Kabaeva
Date March 14, 2015 - 9:51AM
Roland Oliphant in Moscow
New father? Russian president Vladimir Putin. Photo: Bloomberg
Rumours continued to swirl on Friday over the whereabouts of Vladimir Putin, with one newspaper claiming that the Russian president had fathered a child with his long-term girlfriend.
Mr Putin flew to Switzerland to be with Alina Kabaeva, his rumoured lover, as she went into labour at a private clinic, according to Switzerland's Blick tabloid, citing local residents.
The Clinic Sant'Anna near Lugano, in southern Switzerland, specialises in gynaecology and is popular with wealthy Russians.
New father? Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The reports that Miss Kabaeva, an Olympic gymnast turned parliamentarian, checked into the clinic earlier this week could not be unconfirmed and the Kremlin denied that she had given birth.
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Dmitry Peskov, Mr Putin's spokesman, told Russian Forbes magazine that "information about the birth of a baby fathered by Vladimir Putin does not correspond to reality". Miss Kabaeva, 31, has been rumoured to be in a relationship with Mr Putin for several years, but the Kremlin has never acknowledged any link between the pair.
In 2008, a Russian tabloid newspaper was closed down by its owner after it ran a story on the rumoured relationship.
Mr Putin divorced Lyudmilla, his wife of 30 years, in 2013.
Friday's unconfirmed reports were the latest in a series of rumours to circulate since Mr Putin, 62, cancelled a trip to Kazakhstan on Wednesday.
The cancellation raised eyebrows when a Kazakh official said the trip had been called off because Mr Putin had "fallen ill". There were other claims that Mr Putin had lost his grip on power and that a coup was taking place.
Reporters last saw the president when he met Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, on March 5.
Photographs of Mr Putin meeting officials one-on-one have been put on the Kremlin website since then, but his gathering with a group of women for International Women's Day on March 8 actually took place three days earlier, according to one participant.
Russian bloggers, journalists, and self-appointed "experts" suggested that Mr Putin had suffered everything from a stroke to cancer diagnosis. Others speculated the president may have undergone plastic surgery.
Mr Peskov has been forced to deny increasingly lurid stories of ill health, death, and even a coup instigated by disgruntled senior officials.
Asked again whether Mr Putin was in good health yesterday, Mr Peskov said: "Yes. We've already said this a hundred times. This isn't funny any more."
Russian state television aired undated footage of Mr Putin meeting the head of the Russian supreme court at his dacha yesterday.
The rumours have highlighted serious concerns about the fragility of the vertical system of power Mr Putin has built.
With no publicly designated successor, some analysts worry that Mr Putin's sudden illness or death could result in a ruthless struggle for control among the Russian elite.
Some Kremlin-watchers have suggested that the murder last month of Boris Nemtsov, an opposition leader, has exacerbated a confrontation between rival political camps.
Mr Peskov's denials have done little to quell a glut of internet satire directed at the opacity of high politics in Russia, where any effort to divine what is going on behind the Kremlin's walls is often reduced to guess work and speculation.
In one comment, a Russian internet user applied the principles of Kremlinology to conclude that "Putin cannot be dead. It is not in Putin's interests".
It is not the first time that questions have been asked about Mr Putin's health. In late 2012, he was seen limping and then cancelled or postponed a series of foreign trips leading to speculation that he was unable to withstand long flights.
Some Russian media suggested that Mr Putin had aggravated an old back injury when he flew a motorised hang glider to guide a group of Siberian cranes hatched in captivity toward their southern wintering grounds.
But Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's prime minister, said the president, had suffered a minor sports injury.
In 2010, Mr Putin arrived at a meeting in Kiev, Ukraine, with what appeared to be a large bruise on his cheekbone, partly obscured by make-up. That led to gossip that he had undergone a facelift or Botox injections. Mr Peskov said then that the Russian leader was simply tired and the victim of "poor lighting".
The Telegraph, London
