A London socialite claims her husband has stolen her baby and is hiding her in Moscow.
Zhanna Volkova is a Russian celebrity who married Kirill Shamalov in 2018.
As well as being known as the country's youngest billionaire, Mr Shamalov is also the ex-husband of Vladimir Putin 's youngest daughter Katerina Tikhonova, whom he divorced in 2013.
He is thought to remain close to the president and living in Moscow, where he and Ms Volkova tried for a surrogate baby together, she told Mail Online.
She claims that their relationship broke down when the pregnancy was in its final stages, prompting her to head for London where she was cut out of the surrogacy process.
The Moscow agency later informed her they no longer had contact with the surrogate carrying her child, Ms Volkova told the paper.
"I was stuck in London with Covid," she said.
"As soon as I could, I flew to Moscow."
After she arrived at the large home on the outskirts of the Russian capital which they once shared together, it took him three days to meet her there, Ms Volkova claimed.
When Mr Shamalov did arrive, he said he had a new girlfriend and wanted to divorce his wife, she said.
The 44-year-old said Mr Shamalov's lawyers demanded she sign away her rights to see the baby, which she refused to do.
Ms Volkova now lives in London with her twin sister and a teenage son from a previous marriage, and is planning to divorce her husband, it was reported.
She is said to have a prenuptial agreement worth £45million, but only a single 3D scan of her child.
"I live with this small picture. I want her to know she has a mother who didn't run away from her. He can keep the £45million. I just want to see her," she said.
At the end of March eyebrows were raised when Mr Shamalov, who has been sanctioned by the UK government, flew to Dubai with the wealthy daughter of an FSB general amid sanctions misery in Moscow.
He staged a lavish party for his 40th birthday in the UAE.
“While everyone in the country is tightening their belts, and business and industry are entrusted with key roles in saving the economy, Vladimir Putin's former son-in-law, billionaire shareholder of Sibur (a petrochemicals giant) Kirill Shamalov, is burning his life,” reported the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel at the time.
His new partner is reported to be Anastasia Zadorina, 33, daughter of a powerful secret services general in the FSB, which is playing a key role in Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
She hosted his lavish 40th birthday party at the Burj Al Arab tower in Dubai.
Ms Zadorina is the founder of her own haute couture brand anastaiAZadorina and the ZASPORT label, official outfitter for the Russian Olympic team.
Earlier she designed Russian patriotic propaganda T-shirts referring to Putin’s missiles labelled: “Topol is not afraid of sanctions" and "Sanctions? Don't make fun of my Iskanders.”
Ms Zadorina’s father is Colonel General Mikhail Shekin, who is in charge of supplying FSB agents with their equipment.
Mr Shamalov’s father Nikolay Shamalov, 72, a Soviet-era dentist, and Putin were old dacha neighbours near St Petersburg in the 1990s.
He became rich after obtaining a share in Bank Rossiya, as did other Putin associates.
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, now jailed, had alleged Kirill became Russia ’s youngest billionaire after a a “$380 million wedding gift” when he obtained a Sibur share for just $100.
Mr Shamalov denied any wrongdoing at the time.
He has been contacted for comment.
