Russian strongman Vladimir Putin’s long-rumored own “Eva Braun” sported a new look when she was reportedly spotted in Moscow this week — her first public appearance since Russia invaded Ukraine.
As Page Six reported last month, Alina Kabaeva, a former Olympic champion rhythmic gymnast, had been hunkered down with her and Putin’s rumored kids in a very secure chalet in Switzerland near the French border during the Russian invasion.
But she showed up this week — after a rumored facial plastic-surgery boost — at the first rehearsal of a junior rhythmic gymnastics festival at Moscow’s VTB Arena. An event named after her, will take place Saturday, Newsweek reported.
Ekaterina Sirotina, head coach of the country’s junior national rhythmic gymnastics team, posted images on Instagram of the 38-year-old Kabaeva at the rehearsal.
“First rehearsal day of the #FestivalofAlinaKabaeva,” wrote Sirotina, one of the directors of the festival.
Kabaeva was last seen in public in December, when she appeared at the same arena to participate in the opening ceremony of her rhythmic gymnastics tournament “Heavenly Grace.”
A source told Page Six in March that when Kabaeva was later in Switzerland, where she faced expulsion over Russia’s invasion, her friends begged her to go to Moscow to persuade Putin to end the war.
“He doesn’t seem to be listening to anybody, but perhaps he might listen to her,” the source said of Kabaeva, who critics have described as the “wife of a delusional dictator, ” specifically Hitler’s Braun.
“Putin is surrounded by rings and rings of security. Alina says she doesn’t know if she can get to him — and even if she does, she doesn’t know if she’ll be able to get out again to be with their kids,” the person added.
The former Olympian reportedly has four children — two young boys and twin girls — with Putin, 69, though the two have never officially confirmed it.
The kids were allegedly born in Switzerland and all have Swiss passports, according to a source, who told Page Six that Kabaeva is believed to hold passports under a number of different names and nationalities.
Kabaeva is one of the most decorated athletes in rhythmic gymnastics history, with two Olympic medals, 14 World Championship medals and 21 European Championship medals.
International pressure is mounting to strip her of her medals.
Kabaeva went on to become a pro-Kremlin member of parliament for eight years.
In 2014, she was appointed to the board of the state-owned National Media Group — with a reported salary of $10.5 million a year. The group is currently spreading misinformation to Russian nationals about the war in Ukraine.
But unlike other Russians in Putin’s inner circle, Kabaeva has not been sanctioned.
“Please consider [throwing her out of Switzerland] especially against the backdrop of sanctions imposed on her as a top executive of Russian propaganda media,” a general petition signed by tens of thousands of people urged last month.
It also has been reported that Putin has hidden his first wife, former flight attendant Lyudmila Shkrebneva, and their two daughters in a high-tech bunker in Siberia.
The bunker in the Altai Mountains was designed for protection from a nuclear war, according to political scientist Valery Solovey.
