Alina Kabaeva used to be a rhythmic gymnast. She went to the Olympics and won bronze in 2000 in Sydney and gold in 2004 in Athens. She has also won 14 medals at the World Championships and 21 medals at the European Championships. She then stopped playing sports and became an MP in the Kremlin. Later, she joined the board of the National Media Group, which is Russia’s largest pro-Kremlin media company.
When she was an MP in 2008, rumours began to spread that she was having an affair with Putin. Putin had an official wife named Lyudmila Ocheretnaya and two grown children, but a crazy dictator wouldn’t let that stop him. There is a rumour that Putin and Kabaeva have 4 kids together, which is why she has been out of sight lately.
As someone who makes around $10 million a year from a pro-Kremlin media giant that has been spreading Russian propaganda for years, she is just as guilty of the war in Ukraine as Putin and everyone who supports him. She has a pretty messed up view of the world, just like the dictator she loves. She has been telling people in Russia in public that “the worse it gets, the better it is for us” when it comes to sanctions after 2014.
Most people think she is hiding out in Switzerland to avoid sanctions, but others think she might be in the Altai Mountains in a bunker. Still, there are a number of online petitions asking Switzerland to find out if she is in Switzerland, why she is there, and to send her back to Russia. People have also started petitions to ask the International Olympic Committee to take away her medals. People from Ukraine and even Russia who are against Putin’s terrorist regime have started these petitions. We can only hope that their petitions are successful.