Vladimir Putin married Alina Kabayeva? Gymnast’s wedding ring shown on TV

Rumors that Russian President Vladimir Putin has married former gymnast Alina Kabayeva have sparked again after his alleged mistress was shown on television apparently wearing a wedding ring.

While Vladimir Putin, 61, was hosting the winter Olympics in Sochi, Alina Kabayeva, 30, was at a children’s sporting event in the city of Nizhnekamsk, and flashed a sparkling ring to television cameras.

The Kremlin has previously denied that Vladimir Putin married Alina Kabayeva in the town of Valdai in September.

When Vladimir Putin was shown wearing a wedding ring in a meeting with the Egyptian defense minister last week, the Kremlin-friendly news agency pulled the photograph, and claimed that it was taken before Putin’s divorce in 2013 from his wife Lyudmila and had been posted accidentally.

Rumors that Vladimir Putin and Alina Kabayeva are involved in a longstanding affair and even they have children together have long been denied by the president’s aides.

Vladimir Putin shut down the newspaper Moskovsky Korrespondent after it reported in 2008 that Putin was about to divorce his wife and marry Alina Kabayeva.

In an interview in 2013, Alina Kabayeva said she had me a man she “loved very much”, and wanted to marry and have children.

Alina Kabayeva was among the final six elite Russian athletes to carry the Olympic flame during the opening ceremony at the Sochi Winter Games.