Tens of thousands have signed a petition demanding the expulsion of "Vladimir Putin's mistress," who lives in luxury in Switzerland. She is a former gymnast, born 38 years ago as Alina Kabaeva to a father of Tatar Muslim descent. The petition, referring to Kabaeva as the "wife of a deluded dictator," is available in English, French, and German and also calls for stripping her of the medals she has won in international competitions.
As of Tuesday morning, over 60,000 people had signed it on change.org, with most selecting the phrase "very cautiously" in response to a question in the petition asking "whether there is a reason for this person to reside in your country." They also demanded an investigation into the "cleanliness" of the funds she used to purchase properties in Switzerland.
The petition notes that she became one of the most decorated gymnasts in Russia, winning a gold medal at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, and has been romantically linked to Putin since 2008. She attracted the attention of Swiss and international media after giving birth to a child in 2015 in the Italian-speaking city of Lugano in Switzerland, with Putin identified as the child's father.
The "Putin family" later expanded when the former gymnast gave birth to twins for Putin in 2019, and two years prior, she had a child in a private clinic in Switzerland, where she currently resides with her four children. Putin was previously married for 30 years to Lyudmila Skrebneva, who is five years younger than him, and they divorced eight years ago. They have two daughters: 35-year-old Ekaterina and Maria, who is one year older.
Although the daughters are prominent in Russian public life, Putin has not publicly acknowledged them as his daughters due to his personal life being shrouded in extreme secrecy. In 2008, the newspaper Moskovsky Korrespondent, founded by the renowned economist and banker Alexander Lebedev, published a story, also reported by Al-Arabiya.net in 2013, claiming that he had divorced his first wife and planned to marry Kabaeva. The Kremlin quickly denied this, and the newspaper was soon shut down.
