Kremlin denies Putin has wed former Olympian

The Kremlin has dismissed claims that the recently divorced Vladimir Putin has tied the knot with a former Olympic gymnast and appealed to internet gossips to stop speculating about the Russian president's private life.

Dmitri Peskov, spokesman for Mr Putin, said rumours that his boss had wed Alina Kabayeva, a glamorous Olympic gold medallist turned politician, at a monastery in northwest Russia last week had "nothing to do with reality".

Speculation that Mr Putin was dating Ms Kabayeva has been around for some years and has intensified since the Russian president announced in June that his 30-year marriage with Lyudmila Putina had come to an end in what the couple described as a “civilised divorce”.

Rumours
The latest wave of rumours was sparked by a tweeter who reported that police had cordoned off a monastery in Russia's Valdai region where Mr Putin was getting married to Ms Kabayeva. It only took a retweet from Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader and blogger, and the news went viral on the internet.

In an interview with the daily Izvestiya Mr Peskov dodged questions about the Russian president's love life and called for an end to the speculation. "You know it's a perfectly normal question, it has a right to exist. But I will answer quite simply. You and I voted for the president at the elections, so let's pay attention to what kind of president he is. And what kind of bloke he is, whether he has a wife or not – let's leave that up to him."

Heart throb
In a country where 50 per cent of marriages end in divorce, many people will forgive the president who is seen as a heart throb by many women voters.

However, sociologists say that Mr Putin, who has presided over a revival of Orthodox Christianity, would hesitate to risk offending Russian traditional values by remarrying in haste.

Only this week the pro-Kremlin Russian parliament began debating a plan to slap a 30,000 rubles ($942) tax on divorce to encourage couples to think twice about getting into, or out of, marriage.

Joining in the gossip, western diplomats in Moscow are not ruling out the possibility of a wedding in the Kremlin before Russia hosts the Winter Olympics next February. Mr Putin wants to use the prestigious international event to showcase Russia as a modern, outward looking global power. Having a beautiful Olympian on his arm would not hurt.