Putin’s young gymnast flame turns heads in Moscow

According to informed and highly excited Moscow gossip, President Vladimir Putin is set to terminate his 25-year marriage and tie the knot with a lithe gymnast young enough to be his granddaughter. The rumours about 57-year-old Putin (right) and the woman in question, Alina Kabaeva, 24, (left), have been doing the rounds for some time, but only now has it been reported in the Russian newspapers. According to Moskovski Korrespondent, the Russian leader has already separated from his 50-year-old wife Ludmilla and will walk Miss Kabaeva down the aisle in the summer.

The Moskovski Korrespondent cites as its source a unnamed party-planner in St Petersburg who claims to have been bidding to organise the couple's wedding reception. The date for the big day is apparently June 15; tellingly perhaps, the Kremlin has so far refused to confirm or deny this.

Miss Kabaeva seems a racy type, just the sort of women a world leader going through a mid-life crisis might be attracted to. She is said to possess "extreme natural flexibility" as an athlete, and has represented Russia both at the Sydney and Athens Olympic Games. And her interests are not just sportif. She has also allegedly posed for "daring photographs wrapped in nothing but furs" and has appeared in an action film.

Keen readers of The First Post will know that she was elected to the Duma - the Russian parliament - in elections in December 2007 as one of 'Putin's babes', four former athletes turned topless models who become deputies.