SECRET GIRLFRIEND

Luxury life of a tyrant's

- TOM PARRY

WAR IN UKRAINE: HOW PUTIN SHIELDS HIS FAMILY

• Swiss bolthole for Alina and his kids
• Russia’s elite drawn to a city of opulence and secrecy

IN Switzerland’s lakeside idyll Lugano, obscenely rich Russians stroll between Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Cartier stores, parading supermodel partners or pampered pets.

Far from the carnage in Ukraine, this is where Vladimir Putin’s girlfriend Alina Kabaeva is rumoured to have been holed up since he launched his murderous invasion.

Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Alina, once described as “Russia’s most flexible woman”, reportedly travelled to a “very private and secure” chalet near Lugano with their young children.

Widely believed to be the mother of Putin’s two sons and a daughter – or possibly twin daughters – Alina, 38, lives in a luxurious bubble, shielded from the horrors her 69-year-old partner is inflicting on innocent children in Ukraine.

Switzerland has a long history of providing low-tax secrecy to the world’s most powerful people and Kremlin tyrant Putin’s family is unlikely to be exposed here.

A local in Lugano said: “Before the pandemic, there was often gossip about Putin’s mistress being in town. They are known to have strong connections here but anyone who knows them has been sworn to secrecy.