The Dossier Center, a website specialised in tracking the criminal activities of people connected to the Kremlin, has confirmed that one of the sons of Russian President Vladimir Putin was born in Switzerland in 2015. The report, published on Wednesday quoting an anonymous source working at Putin’s residence, said his long-term partner, Alina Kabaeva, delivered their first son at a clinic in Lugano, southern Switzerland.

The Dossier Center reportExternal link also provided rare insights into the living conditions of the couple’s two sons, now aged nine and five, at their residence on Lake Valdai, in central Russia.

Putin divorced his wife Lyudmila in 2013 but has never publicly acknowledged his relationship with Kabaeva, a former gymnast.

Their relationship has drawn a lot of media attention, including speculation on where their sons were born. In a report published in May 2022, Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitungconfirmedExternal link that the couple had two sons, with the first one born in Switzerland. This information was never officially confirmed.

In an interview with SWI swissinfo.ch, Sergei Pugachev, a former advisor to Putin, indirectly confirmed the information. “Everyone in Russia knows that Alina Kabaeva is, so to speak, his wife since Putin’s divorce. And it would be normal she gave birth in Switzerland. His eldest children study abroad.”