[imagesource: Polaris / eyevine]

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s alleged mistress, with whom he supposedly has four children, was rumoured to be holed up in a Swiss chalet while he’s been waging war on Ukraine.

Dubbed “Russia’s Eva Braun” by a Swiss petition to get Alina Kabaeva sanctioned and out of Switzerland, she seems to have remained loyal to Putin and his war-waging ways.

Appearing in public for the first time since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kabaeva was spotted heading a patriotic-themed gymnastics ballet festival named in her honour.

The Alina Festival did all it could to boost patriotic support for Putin’s military presence in Ukraine.

The Mirror has more:

The event included some of the Soviet Union’s most patriotic songs in a celebration of the country’s victory over the Nazis — but also the ‘Z’ symbol likened by critics to a Russian swastika invented for the war in Ukraine.

The full show will be broadcast on May 8, the eve of a vast Red Square military parade commemorating ‘Victory Day’, the end of the Second World War.

Kabaeva suggested that victory in the Second World War was similar to today’s situation:

She said: “This theme, you see, this story, doesn’t only go into the past. It stays with us.”

Her words resonate with Putin’s outlandish claim – denounced in the West – that his modern-day war is against “Nazis” who dominate Ukraine, just as World War Two, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War, was to defeat Hitler’s Nazis.

“This celebration is not just for the whole country, this is a holiday for every family,” Kabaeva said. Every family has a war story. And we mustn’t ever forget it, but pass it on, from generation to generation.”

Russian Cosmopolitan reckons Kabaeva has undergone plastic surgery, stating that “something has really changed in Kabaeva’s face”.

Per Business Insider, Ekaterina Sirotina, the head coach of Russia’s junior national rhythmic gymnastics team, posted some pics of Kabaeva on Instagram:

 

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A post shared by Ekaterina Sirotina (@ekaterina_sirotina_official)

The publication also said that Kabaeva is “one of the most mysterious and secretive women” in Russia, managing to stay out of the public’s eye for long periods of time.

It might help that she allegedly controls a large portion of the pro-Kremlin Moscow media, the National Media Group.

Since the group is likely owned by Putin, paying Kabaeva a whopping £8 million a year instead of the average £5 600, there are calls to sanction her and treat her as a “war criminal”.

Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader in jail, is demanding that Kabaeva get sanctioned by the West:

Navalny posted from jail: “I want to remind you that the National Media Group, which owns the lion’s share of this apparatus of lies, undoubtedly belongs to Putin personally, and as such is even formally headed by Putin’s mistress Alina Kabaeva.”

But officials are biding their time out of fear that sanctioning Putin’s alleged secret mistress would further inflame tensions between the US and Russia and ruin any chance of negotiating peace for Ukraine:

Treasury Department officials went as far as to prepare a sanctions package targeting Kabaeva — who is thought to be involved in the Kremlin’s effort to hide the true scale of Putin’s wealth and international assets, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials with knowledge of the matter.

But just before the sanctions were set to be announced, the National Security Council cut them.

However, President Joe Biden’s administration hasn’t completely ruled out implementing sanctions against her at some point in the future.

Perhaps then she’ll head to that Swiss chalet again, or those high-grade bunkers in the Urals, Arctic, or Siberia – wherever it was that she was hiding before.

[sources:businessinsider&nypost&mirror]