The heritage of Vladimir Putin’s daughters in Western countries is being conferred as a measure of pressure on the Russian president. The oligarchs, partners, protégés and friends of the president, have their assets seized in half the world Russian athletes are banned from major international competitions. Russian companies encounter a cascade of problems and inconveniences in maintaining their international business. And yet, Alina Kabaeva seems untouchable, as if the Putin-lover relationship was not an inconvenience for her.
Alina (38 years old) was one of the best rhythmic gymnasts in her time, between 1996 and 2007. Gold and bronze between two Olympic Games, and 15 world medals and 24 European. Cwith the tape and the maces was unrivaled outside of Russia. In addition, an exotic beauty that Putin fell in love with.
In 2004, when Kabaeva was still competing, when doping was already forgotten at the World Cup in Madrid in 2001, it was written in Moscow that Putin, still married to his wife Ludmila, was going to divorce to join the gymnast. The news was denied, and nothing was known for sure about it again.
After his withdrawal, Kabaeva entered politics, and was a Duma deputy for Putin’s party until 2014, when he went on to direct a communication emporium that controls information in the country with an estimated annual salary of more than 10 million euros. In 2015 she was in Lugano, where she is said to have given birth to one of her children with Putin.
Now, during the invasion of Ukraine, the American media has placed Kabaeva in Switzerland, in some well-covered village perhaps in the Alps, and his name remains safe from all major account seizures by the Russians. Untouchable despite, supposedly, being an instrumental person of Putin’s fortune that also benefits her. However, and despite the pressures, it remains on the sidelines of the countries pointing it out.