Vladimir Putin has two secret sons by his gymnast 'lover' Alina Kabaeva, according to a new report today.
The first boy was born in secrecy in Switzerland amid huge security in 2015, according to a source linked to the obstetrician who was at the birth.
The second son was delivered in Moscow in 2019 with the same specialist flying to Russia for the birth, according to Swiss newspaper Sonntagszeitung.
The Russian leader, who will be 70 this year, has since 2007 denied a relationship with Olympic gold-medal winning Kabaeva, now 38.
He has hidden his alleged secret family from voters - and was not present at either of the births.
The report confirms strong rumours over a Putin-Kabaeva family, except in suggesting there was one son born in 2019 rather than twins.
It also indicates that Kabaeva is the secret Russian first lady at a time when the country is suffering major losses from the war with Ukraine.
Alina Kabaeva shakes hands with Vladimir Putin during a meeting with other gymnasts in the Kremlin. Putin has, since 2007, denied having a relationship with the Olympic gold-medal winner
Putin awards Kabaeva with the 'For Merit to the Fatherland' order in 2005 in Kremlin, Moscow
The source of the new report - published today - is said to be a personal friend of Kabaeva who also knows the obstetrician, an unnamed Soviet-born medic acquainted with Putin for more than three decades and a long-time Swiss citizen after emigrating from Russia.
The paper reported: 'Our source says clearly: "Alina's relationship with Putin existed. Their children - two sons - are Putin's children. Alina had no other relationship. That would have been too dangerous for her".'
The female doctor works at Clinica Sant'Anna in the Italian-speaking Ticino region of Switzerland where the first child was born.
The obstetrician had 'maintained a trusting relationship with Putin', said the report.
'You had to keep the whole thing very discreet,' the newspaper was told.
Contrary to gossip in 2015, Putin was not present at the birth which - at the time - the Kremlin denied.
There was also only one Putin-Kabaeva child born in Switzerland, said the source.
By the 'president's decision', the second son was born in Moscow.
The same Russian emigre Swiss obstetrician delivered the second son in Moscow in 2019.
Before the birth, Kabaeva had traveled in secret to Lugano several times.
The source described Kabaeva as 'a very pleasant woman.
'She is a real sportswoman, very straight, without posturing.
'She came with her mother and sister, but without bodyguards.'
Despite this, a blanket of secrecy was thrown over the births.
Putin hands Kabaeva a bouquet of flowers on the day she received the 'For Merit to the Fatherland' order in 2005
Kabaeva had also travelled multiple times to Switzerland before starting her relationship with Putin, believed to be in 2007.
She was an ambassador for Longines watches from 1999 to 2008.
Recently, rumours suggested that she and her suspected young children were hiding out from the war at a reclusive Swiss chalet.
However ten days ago - after a four-month absence from the limelight - she reappeared in Moscow.
There are indications she has spent time near Geneva at the Cologny residence of Gennady Timchenko, 69, an oligarch very close to Putin.
Timchenko's representatives refused to comment to the Sunday newspaper.
Swiss government representatives say there is no indication Kabaeva has been in the country recently.
The young woman identified as Putin's daughter, known as both Elizaveta Krivonogikh and Luiza Rozova
A video shows Kabaeva in May 2015 - which at the time sparked rumours of pregnancy - at her annual gymnastics show for children called 'Alina 2015'.
At the time she said: 'The children performed brilliantly.'
Putin has two officially acknowledged children — Maria, 37, and Katerina, 35, both from first wife Lyudmila.
Dr Maria Vorontsova - a year younger than Kabaeva, who was born when the Russian president was a KGB spy in Germany - is an expert in rare genetic diseases in children.
She is a leading researcher at the National Medical Research Center for Endocrinology of the Ministry of Health of Russia.
Her divorced sister Katerina is deputy director of the Institute for Mathematical Research of Complex Systems at Moscow State University.
She is a former high-kicking 'rock'n'roll' dancer.
Both daughters have been sanctioned by the West, unlike Kabaeva, and Putin's unacknowledged 'love child' Luiza Rozova, 19.
Luiza is the daughter of cleaner-turned-multimillionaire
