Who is Putin’s girlfriend? And why is she trending amidst Russia-Ukraine war?

Amidst the Russian-Ukraine war that is set complete a month, calls are growing for Russian President Vladamir Putin’s rumoured girlfriend to be expelled from her luxurious house in Switzerland.

The opponents of Putin have launched a petition on change.org urging the Swiss to extradite 38-year-old Alina Kabaeva, a former athlete, claiming that she is hiding with their secret children in a luxury villa, reports say.

The petition in German, French and English, is said to have attracted almost 55,000 signatures and has mostly citizens from Ukraine, Russia, and its ally Belarus.

Comparing Kabaeva to Hilter’s wife, the petition says, “It's time you reunite Eva Braun with her Führer.”

“Despite the current war, Switzerland continues to host an accomplice of Putin's regime,” it adds, as it lists Kabaeva’s many crimes.

It added that it was time for the neutral country “to take action” and send her home to Putin, 69.

It is being claimed that the Olympic gold medallist was sent to a private chalet in Switzerland earlier this month amidst the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

However, a separate report suggests that Kabaeva is rather housed at a hi-tech underground bunker in the Altai Mountains of Siberia.

She has released only one statement linked to the war where she slammed the refusal to allow the Russian team to compete at the Beijing Paralympics.

Who is Kabaeva?

Kabaeva, an Olympic gold medallist, is known as Russia’s “most flexible woman”. There are claims that Putin and she got married in a secret ceremony after he divorced his first wife Lyudmila in 2013.

However, the Kremlin has always dismissed all the reports as rumours.

The former gymnast enjoys quite a few privileges in Russia. She spent six years as a member of parliament in Putin’s United Russia Party.

In September 2014, she quit the party to take charge of Russia’s National Media Group, which had a stake in Channel One, one of the state-controlled television channels, along with other newspapers. She headed the media holding for more than even years, where she earned an annual salary of £8 million, reports the British Daily Mail.