New Delhi: Opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus in a petition have demanded Switzerland to expel the strongman’s “lover” Alina Kabaeva amid claims she is hiding with their secret children in a luxury villa.
Kabaeva, 38, is a former Olympic gymnast and gold medalist who is widely believed to be Putin’s “mistress” and mother to “secret” children whom he has never officially recognised, Daily Mail reported.
The petition comes amid reports that Kabaeva, once named “Russia’s most flexible woman”, was sent to a private chalet in Switzerland earlier this month amid the invasion of Ukraine.
“It’s time you reunite Eva Braun with her Fuhrer,” said the strongly-worded petition which was posted on change.org in in German, French and English and has so far received over 57,000 signatures.
“Despite the current war, Switzerland continues to host an accomplice of Putin’s regime,” the petition has claimed.
The pair have been pictured together on several occasions, and investigations by the Anti-Corruption Foundation, set up by jailed Putin opponent Alexei Navalny, “revealed several Russian oligarchs have inexplicably bestowed gifts of property, money and other assets upon Kabaeva’s family”.
The former gymnast is seldom seen in public, but she was caught on video dancing at the “Divine Grace” rhythmic gymnastics tournament in Moscow in December last year, mere weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine.
“We, the citizens of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, which is currently undergoing immense suffering, are uniting to appeal to the Swiss authorities,” the petition said.
“The public has just learned that the Russian political and media figure, and former (rhythmic gymnast), Alina Kabaeva, is hiding from the consequences of the sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation in YOUR country.”
“She is the favourite wife of (the) delusional dictator and war criminal who has been treacherously attacking Ukraine over the past weeks.
“As she is supportive of social activities in Russia, she has been attempting to get Russian citizens accustomed to the reality of sanctions after 2014, and personally proclaimed: “The worse it gets, the better for us!”
The signatories question, “Why, given the volume of sanctions placed on Russia, Swiss authorities continue to host her and her family at a time when Putin ‘is destroying the lives of millions’.”
The petition tells the Swiss: “For the first time in modern history, your country has violated its neutrality, which it did not even do vis-à-vis Nazi Germany in the 20th century, and joined the sanctions against Putin and his surroundings. And now you are allowing his favourite mistress and her children to hide within the borders of your state.”
There is as yet no independently verified evidence that Kabaeva, a former pro-Putin MP, is hiding in Switzerland, where she is thought to have given birth to the Russian President’s children.
“It’s time you reunite Eva Braun with her Führer,” the petition asserted.
Meanwhile, separate reports suggest that Kabaeva is not in Switzerland but at a hi-tech underground bunker in the Altai Mountains of Siberia.
Political scientist Valery Solovey, 61, said earlier in March: “In fact, it is not a bunker, but a whole underground city, equipped with the latest science and technology.”
He warned: “I hope this means something to you? That the President sends his family to this bunker?”
Kabaeva has made very few public appearances as of late, but did give a statement which slammed the decision preventing the Russian team to compete at the Beijing Paralympics in light of the war in Ukraine.
(IANS)
