Demands are growing for Vladimir Putin's reported lover to be expelled from her luxury mountain bolthole in Switzerland. Foes of Putin in Russia and Ukraine have launched a petition urging the Swiss to expel Alina Kabaeva, 38, amid claims she is hiding with their secret children in a luxury villa.
It said: “Despite the current war, Switzerland continues to host an accomplice of Putin’s regime.” The petition added that it was time for the neutral country “to take action” and send her home to Putin, 68, reports the Mirror.
“It’s time you reunite Eva Braun with her Führer,” the petitioners fumed. Kabaeva is rarely seen in public, but she was captured on video dancing in Moscow in December. Recent reports have claimed she is sheltering in a mountain hideaway with her rumoured children.
The petition in German, French and English, and posted on change.org, has so far attracted almost 55,000 signatures. “The public has just learned that the Russian political and media figure, and former [rhythmic gymnast], Alina Kabaeva, is hiding the consequences of the sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation in your country.
“She is the favourite wife of [the] delusional dictator and war criminal who has been treacherously attacking Ukraine over the past weeks. As she is supportive of social activities in Russia, she has been attempting to get Russian citizens accustomed to the reality of sanctions after 2014, and personally proclaimed: ‘The worse it gets, the better for us!’”
It questions why “given the volume of sanctions placed on Russia” the authorities continue to host her and her family at a time when Putin “is destroying the lives of millions”.
Kabaeva has not been included in the list of individuals sanctioned by Western nations. Besides being Putin’s rumoured secret partner, she is also chairman of the board of directors at National Media Group, a major Kremlin-obedient TV and newspaper organisation, at a salary of almost £8 million a year.
The petition added: "Now you are allowing his favourite mistress and her children to hide within the borders of your state.” However, there is as yet no independent evidence that Kabaeva, a former pro-Putin MP, is hiding in Switzerland, where she was rumoured to have previously given birth in the country.
Separate reports suggest Kabaeva is not in Switzerland but at a hi-tech underground bunker in the Altai Mountains of Siberia. In her only statement linked to the war, Kabaeva slammed the refusal to allow the Russian team to compete at the Beijing Paralympics.
She said: “There has never been a more shameful page in the history of world sports. They did not worry and did not remove from the competition any country that participated in the destruction of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, and Syria.
“But sports officials were very angry when Russia decided to protect the Donbas and Luhansk from the Nazis." She complained that Olympic officials “tried so hard to humiliate the Russians, banned our symbols, flag and anthem”.
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