Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rumoured girlfriend has two new homes in a NATO country, an opposition source has said.
An intermediary and close aide of the country's president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arranged the properties, it's believed.
The claim has emerged from Russian-born Israeli businessman Leonid Nevzlin, 62, who is a former co-owner of the oil giant Yukos and a leading enemy of Putin.
An intermediary “through a close aide of Erdogan….organised the purchase of a summer house for Alina Kabaeva in southern Turkey and a house in Istanbul.”
He claimed the Turkish leader had “allocated” his presidential guard to the expensive "homes".
But there are no known details about the alleged properties.
Amidst the current war in Ukraine, 39-year-old Kabaeva has been sanctioned by Britain, the EU and Canada for her supposed close personal links to Putin.
There have been rumours she has several children with the Kremlin leader, despite previous official denials of a relationship.
Nevzlin gave no specific evidence for his claim over the two alleged homes.
In April, he alleged that Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu was “out of the game” in the war after suffering a “massive heart attack”.
Later Shoigu played a prominent part in the 9 May Victory Day parade in Moscow, although his visibility has been low in recent weeks.
Nevzlin is a Russian-born Israeli businessman, investor, and philanthropist, who claims to have prominent contacts in Moscow.
He held high-ranking positions at Group Menatep and its subsidiary, the Yukos Oil Company.
The claim comes amid evidence that Kabaeva uses a $40 million Falcon 7X that flies under the tail number RA-09009.
It is leased to Russair carries high-profile passengers protected by the Federal Security Service, according to an OCCRP investigation.
Kabaeva is rumoured to have two or three children with Putin, 69, and there has been an unconfirmed claim that she is again pregnant.
Putin was said to be “subdued and withdrawn” over the news, reported General SVR Telegram channel which has been separately ahead of the game in claiming the Russian leader is suffering from cancer and Parkinson’s disease.
She has not commented on the sanctions imposed on her nor her closeness to Putin.
Earlier there were rumours she had a Swiss bolthole, but the authorities denied she was in the country.
She has been seen twice this month in Sochi and St Petersburg.
A former loyalist MP, she is now a media mogul, heading a company owning pro-Putin TV channels and newspapers, for which she is paid an estimated £8 million a year.
