Vladimir Putin’s hidden sons are revealed in newly released pictures, training to be gymnasts just like their mother.
Pictures and video smuggled out of Russia and shared with The Post show Ivan, 10, and Vladimir Jr., 6, at a gymnastics event run by the president’s mistress, Alina Kabaeva, a former Olympian.
The boy who is said to be Ivan is interviewed, speaking about “cool” gymnastics moves he learned from Olympic champions Alexei Nemov, Evgenia Kanaeva and Taghir Khaibulaev, in a video obtained and published by the Russian language OSINT Bees online channel.
Putin’s alleged oldest son, Ivan, aged 10, at an ALINA gymnastics event named after his mother at the athletics club she runs in Valdai, northwest of Moscow. Provided to NY Post
Putin’s younger son, Vladimir Jr. is 6 years old, but already getting lessons from Russia’s top gym teachers. Provided to NY PostIt was reportedly filmed in January after Kabaeva organized the star athletes to hold master classes for her sons at the academy she runs and is named after her.
Putin is fiercely protective of his alleged secret children and isolates them for fear they will be assassinated. The boys and their mother are said to live an ultra-reclusive life in a heavily fortified forest compound in Valdai, northwest of Moscow.
The boys also use the alias Spiridonov as their last name, according to the authors and gym tournament records viewed by The Post.
“Information about [Kabaeva] and her children is erased from state databases, the boys were given a cover surname — Spiridonov, and all the territory around the Valdai dwelling of the tsar’s family is strictly guarded,” according to journalists Roman Badanin and Mikhail Rubin.
Ivan is pictured with his team at a gymnastics event. He and his brother are said to lead very reclusive lives due to fears they will be targeted by a foreign government. Provided to NY Post
Vlad Jr. receives a medal at a gymnastics event. He and his brother go by the alias ‘Spiridon’ as their last name when they compete. Provided to NY Post
Putin awards a bouquet to his alleged mistress, Alina Kabaeva, herself a former gymnastics champion. Kremlin.ruSpiridonov is the first name of Putin’s paternal grandfather, Spiridon Putin, who lived from 1879 to 1965.
Anti-Kremlin Telegram channel VChK-OGPU published the first photos it claims are of Ivan in April, describing him as “the loneliest boy in Russia.”
The channel wrote: “Ivan is in a team of boy-gymnasts … He took part in a large [performance] called ‘Lezginka’ at a festival organized by his mother.”
Pictures also show him with his team at the ALINA 2023 event — named for his mother.
Vald Jr. is pictured with his martial arts team at a Russian event.
Ivan is pictured with his gymnastics team and trainers at a different event. Provided to NY Post“From the numerous photos […] of the sports team for which Ivan competes, you can see that one of its members is not an ordinary boy,” the channel claimed.
A message posted by Ivan’s club stated their gymnasts showed an “excellent level of training and the ability to work in a team”.
“Hours of training and rehearsals were not in vain! We are proud!!” it read.
Other pictures purport to show light-haired Vlad Jr. with his martial arts team and receiving a medal.
Putin and Kabaeva, 41, have been linked since at least 2008, however, they have never publicly acknowledged their alleged 17-year relationship. One Russian publication that speculated about it was shut down shortly after and state media is banned from any mention of links between the two.
Kabaeva is a two-time Olympic medal winner in the Rhythmic Gymnastics category. She is pictured here at an event in Madrid, 2001. REUTERS
Putin’s third known daughter, Elizaveta Rudnova, aka Elizaveta Krivonogikh and Luiza Rozova, now lives in Paris. She has never publicly confirmed that the Russian president is her father. social mediaThe publicly available pictures of the boys now circulating online first appeared in “The Tsar Himself” a book written by Badanin and Rubin.
Badanin previously defended the authors’ decision to disclose the names and photographs of the Putin children “because he is the president of the country”.
“Putin is all about hypocrisy. The only thing about him that hasn’t changed is his hypocrisy, or, as the FSB [intelligence agency] calls it, his cover story,” he said when the book was released earlier this year.
Putin’s eldest acknowledged daughter, Maria Vorontsova, 40, is a leading researcher at the National Medical Research Center for Endocrinology of the Russian Health Ministry. She is pictured in 2021, before the war in Ukraine. Sputnik via AP
Putin’s other “official” daughter, 39, goes by Katerina Tikhonova. She is shown dancing at the World Cup Rock’n’Roll Acrobatic Competition in Krakow in 2014. REUTERS
Former KGB spy Putin divorced his wife in 2013, but rumors of him fathering children with other women at least five years before that. Getty ImagesPutin, 73, has two “official” daughters — Maria Vorontsova, 40, and Katerina Tikhonova, 39 — with his first wife, former Aeroflot flight attendant Lyudmila Putin, whom he divorced after almost 30 years of marriage in 2013.
Putin also has alleged love child, Elizaveta Rudnova, 22, who was born Elizaveta Krivonogikh and also uses the alias Luiza Rosova.
She lives in Paris, where she was confronted last week by a Ukrainian journalist who said Putin was responsible for his brother’s death.
“What does that have to do with me?” Rudnova asked.
The reporter responded: “Well, he’s your father. At the very least, you could call him right now and say, ‘Dad, stop shelling Kyiv’.”
