Vladimir Putin’s rumoured secret lover makes rare prime time TV appearance wearing an ENGAGEMENT RING
Former gymnast Alina Kabaeva keeps rumour mill spinning as she flaunts gold band on ring finger
VLADIMIR Putin's rumoured lover made a rare appearance on a prime time TV show displaying a sexy new look in a black see-through top.
But in the 12 minute interview on a popular talk show, former Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva, 33, wasn't asked the only question which Russians wanted her to answer.
Wearing an apparent engagement ring, she failed to shed any new light on her alleged relationship with the Kremlin strongman, whose name wasn't mentioned.
There was no attempt to disclose whether she is Russia's secret First Lady or mistress, or to coax out of her whether - as some gossip suggests - the couple are married and have a hidden family together.
Nor during an 1,800 word session, whether - as other Moscow gossip holds - they were an item but are no longer.
The glamorous former rhythmic gymnast wore a black mid-length pencil skirt, transparent black blouse with a bow, and satin and white lace underneath.
She appeared relaxed and happy, giggling during her soft-soap questioning by host Ivan Urgant.
The failure to give more details during the TV show on Kabaeva's life sparked a wave of media analysis and comments on her and her "provocative" blouse from Russian viewers.
One commentator wrote bluntly: "Why don't they tell us (if) he is free, (and) she is free?"
A women's website wrote that the way she fidgeted with a large ring on the middle finger of her right hand suggested it was new, while she didn't touch "the more modest ring which was on the wedding ring finger of her right hand".
"It was as if she had forgotten about him," said
"Perhaps, unlike the first ring, she has worn the second one for a long time."
Another suggested she and her "curator" - Putin - live in a secret palace close to Kislovodsk, a spa in Stavropol region.
Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper wrote: "Stylists usually recommend wearing dark underwear and tops under black transparent clothes, and Kabaeva's light lace could have been called bad manners.
"But Kabaeva who has become slim looks so great that her little mistake with a blouse did not really spoil the whole impression."
But one viewer hit out: "Did people from the funeral service choose her clothes? Such an unpleasant woman."
And another said: "I wonder what her master has to say about her clothes."
One more said sarcastically of Kabaeva, who once posed semi-nude for a photoshoot: "Why did she get dressed so modestly?
"She could have come for a Playboy show, she has enough experience."
Yet another complained that "she looks and dresses like a 50 year old woman, (but this) always happens when there is such a big age difference in the family".
Others were more positive: "She looks perfect! She deserved to be a Tsarina!"
Another said: "About the blouse, she must urgently hire a stylist. Apart from that yes, she is beautiful, and clever and a super boss!"
During the show, Kabaeva was asked about her life as a gymnast.
She once won Olympic gold and was nine times world champion but was also disqualified for a drugs transgression.
She was also quizzed about her seven years as a Russian MP before becoming a Moscow media company boss.
But there were no questions about her love life even though for the past eight years she has been romantically linked only with Putin, 64 this week, who divorced from his first wife Lyudmila two years ago.
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Denials from the Kremlin and her own aides have done little to quash speculation about a relationship.
Last month she teased Russians by appearing at a public event alongside two children leading to a flurry of speculation they were Putin's secret family.
When the claims first surfaced Putin attacked the "erotic fantasies" of journalists who poked their "snotty noses" into other people's lives.
The reason for the TV interview was to mark the 25th anniversary of Russian newspaper Sport Express, which is owned by the Kremlin-loyal National Media Group, which she now heads.
Her empire even owns a stake in Channel One, on which she was being interviewed, which may explain the timid questioning.
"So it sounds like you are my big boss?" said the interviewer, standing up midway through the interview as if he was a subservient junior apparatchik.
She claimed she was well qualified for the role, and insisted she was "tough".
"I'd like to say that I began to work on TV in 2001 when I was disqualified and I became the host of the 'Sports Empire TV show," she said.
"Then I was a member of the National Media Group public council for six years - it was for free - at the same time I was an MP.
"I learned a lot in those six years.
"And you know, to take up a new job, I think it is a right thing to do.
"Why should Olympic champions or any other people stop when they have achieved something?"
She said: "I am a person with sports background, I like professionalism, and sometimes it is necessary to be tough."
While not talking about her private live, in one bizarre exchange she was allowed to boast about her medal haul.
"I would like to say how many medals I have, may I?" she asked.
Then she reeled off the list: "15 golds at the European championships, then 9 gold medals at the world championships, one bronze medal at the Sydney Olympics and in Athens I was finally the winner at the end; I got a gold."
She also praised her ";tough coach" and mentor Irina Viner, wife of Arsenal shareholder and pro-Kremlin billionaire oligarch Alisher Usmanov.
Kabaeva said when she has a meal with her and "I lean over to pick up some bread, I glance at her, God save me, fearing she may shout at me".
She admitted: "Of course, we were scared of her, we respected her.
";But this is the right thing, she is really a tough coach."
Kabaeva is seldom seen in public but when she is the former gymnast is accompanied by a large security detail which is believed to be from the government.
Claims of a relationship between Putin and Kabaeva began in 2008 with a story in a Moscow newspaper owned by media tycoon and former KGB spy Alexander Lebedev, who later bought The Independent titles and the London Evening Standard.
In July 2008, Sobesednik newspaper claimed Kabaeva - who as a sportswoman had been banned for a drugs transgression - cancelled participation in a TV ice show extravaganza "because of her pregnancy". The report rapidly vanished from databases.
Kabaeva has given interviews which served to fuel Russian suspicions that she was romantically linked with the president.
She said she had met a man who "I love very much", declining to name him.
She gushed: "Sometimes you feel so happy that you even feel scared."
Rumours suggested she had had a child or children with Putin but these were never confirmed, and she denied being a mother.
One version suggested that she had a son in 2008, while also claiming she had a daughter four years later, both born in America.
Her close confidante Irina Viner was quoted saying: "When Alina finds the right time, she will say it herself. I'm just happy for her."
Other accounts say her children were born in Switzerland, with the most recent claim of a baby born in March 2015 at Clinic Sant'Anna near Lugano.
"Information about the birth of a baby fathered by Vladimir Putin does not correspond to reality," the Kremlin said at the time.
Speculation has also suggested that the gymnast has had plastic surgery.
Compared with the West, the private lives of senior Russian politicians remain clouded in mystery, encouraging rumours and making it hard for ordinary people to separate fact from fiction.
Kabaeva has been dubbed "Russia's most flexible woman" and "the Kremlin's First Mistress".
Putin has previously made clear: "I have a private life in which I do not permit interference ... it must be respected."
While inviting photographers to his bare-chested macho photo stunts in Siberia, he is less keen on allowing Russians to know about his domestic arrangements.
Though widely seen as one of her country's most desirable and famous sportswomen, it is now a decade since she has been romantically linked to anyone other than Putin.
Photographer Mikhail Korolov, who photographed the star in a nude shoot for a Russian magazine, said: "I didn't even need to persuade her. She behaved very naturally.
"She was a bit shy at the beginning but then relaxed. She is a very pleasant person. She's clever enough not to make a capricious star of herself.
"The bits of her I saw are very beautiful indeed.
"She has a very well groomed body. She's full of sex. She's got some very special energy.
"She's simply ideal. Usually the staff spend a lot of time putting make up on models' bodies - and after the shoot pictures are edited on the computer.
"But Alina doesn't need all these special measures, she's perfectly okay without it all."
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