FURIOUS Vladimir Putin has blamed his gymnast lover's friends for leaking details of their plush lifestyle, so-called Kremlin insiders claim.
The tyrant's secret life with Alina Kabaeva, 39, was this week exposed – revealing the gold £100 million mansion near Moscow she is alleged to live in with their kids.
Pictures of the 13,000 sq ft mansion show its luxurious interiors, said to have been inspired by Putin’s love for his hometown of St Petersburg and its eighteenth-century Hermitage Museum.
The Russian leader is believed to have bought the grand property on Lake Valdai for Olympic rhythmic gymnast Kabaeva using a slush fund in Cyprus, Russian investigative site The Project claimed.
Telegram channel General SVR – which claims to be fed information by a Kremlin insider – alleges the revelations sparked a row between him a Kalaeva.
The channel claimed raging Putin blamed Kalaeva's gossiping pals for the leak.
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It said: "Putin said that he had 100 per cent information that the leak came from Kabaeva’s circle of friends
"They say that no one has ever seen the president so furious."
According to the channel, the fuming dictator said her friends talk "on every corner about everything they know and don't know".
Pictures of the mansion were leaked to The Project by a construction executive who worked around the house until 2005.
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Gilded chairs can be seen arranged around a glass table and a spherical chandelier, with golden leaves hanging from the ceiling, in another photo.
According to the contractor, guests were encouraged to reach out and take one of the golden leaves.
A construction company owned by Yuri Kovalchuk, the businessman known as “Putin’s banker,” is said to have carried out the work on the mansion which was completed in 2020.
In another picture, a massive chandelier seemingly decorated with rubies can be seen.
Kabaeva’s property is said to be just half a mile from Valdai, Putin’s heavily-guarded and private residence.
Unnamed officials claimed they had spotted kids on the premises and satellite images taken between 2016 and 2020 showed a playground in the woods, which is believed to have been built for the family.
The ex-gymnast is alleged to have a secret family with Putin – which she had denied.
The area has also been frequented by Kabaeva’s distant female relatives, who are described as her chaperones in leaked train manifests.
The chaperones are said to own properties in the area.
Reports about the existence of the villa first emerged in 2021 by the team of Alexei Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader, who said that budget funds were used to lease the property from Kovalchuk.
Both Putin and Kabaeva have repeatedly denied they are in a relationship.
Unnamed officials who have attended Putin’s private parties say they have never seen the two together but are in no doubt they do have a relationship, claiming that only top-ranking officers in Putin’s security detail are aware of their arrangement.
Another sign of their closeness came in 2014 when Kabaeva was appointed to head Russia’s National Media Group, a vast media holding by Kovalchuk, even though she had no relevant experience.
The post provides her with an annual income of around £8.6m.
It is unclear if she still holds the post.
The Project’s investigation drew on documents provided by an unnamed whistleblower who was described as an executive in the “business empire of one of the president’s closest friends” and was directly involved in managing a Cyprus-based company used as a slush-fund for the president.
It’s claimed the whistleblower got in contact with the site as he was outraged by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and said the Russian regime “must be stopped”.
Documents seen by The Project are said to reveal how Putin’s close friends and their companies were pouring money into Ermira, the Cypriot company, which was later used to purchase the luxury estate and provide for the needs of Putin and his family.
Putin was also accused of racking up profits from the sale of a vodka brand named after him which went on the market in the early 2000s.
Property rights to the vodka are said to have been repeatedly transferred between his childhood friend Arkady Rotenberg and the Cypriot company.
According to estimates by The Project, the vodka sales alone would have earned Putin at least half a million dollars between 2004 and 2019.
Kabaeva has been revealed as the owner of a number of other luxury properties in Russia, including a luxury penthouse in Sochi on the Black Sea, which is thought to be the largest apartment in Russia.
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When the apartment was briefly for sale, 3D visualisations available online revealed its opulent interiors, including a dining room with marble floors and walls and gilded bannister rails on the stairs between the floors.
Kabaeva’s properties were registered under the name of her relatives, including her elderly grandmother.
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