'First pictures of Vladimir Putin's secret son Ivan, 10,' until now hidden from Russians

The first pictures have appeared of secret son Ivan, according to a Russian anti-Kremlin Telegram channel with links to law enforcement and the secret services. The 10-year-old boy - hidden from ordinary Russians - is said to be the son of the dictator and his long-time partner gymnast Alina Kabaeva, 41.

“VChK-OGPU [channel] has obtained a photo of the most secret and probably the loneliest boy in ,” said its report. "This is Ivan Vladimirovich Putin. He hardly communicates with other children, spending all his time with guards, governesses, [and] teachers.” The boy is said to resemble Putin in his Soviet childhood.

Ivan has a younger brother Vladimir junior, now four, who is not pictured. Putin has never confirmed the young family he has with Olympic Gold-medal winning Kabaeva, three decades his junior. But in an unguarded moment five months ago, he referred to watching fairy tale films with “my little ones”.

State propaganda channel RT translated his words as “my junior family members”. Putin told a marathon televised question and answer session: “Our historic fairy tales and epic tales are being revived. I myself sometimes watch these with pleasure with my little ones.”

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A flicker of a smile appeared on his face as he mentioned them. While Putin and the Kremlin have always denied a relationship between him and glamorous Kabaeva, independent Russian journalists have established they have two sons together. Until now, the children have never been seen and live out of sight behind his high-security palace walls.

Putin is also known to have grandchildren from his two eldest daughters - Maria Vorontsova, 39, and Katerina Tikhonova, 38, a high-kicking ‘rock’n’roll’ dancer. Putin also has another secret daughter Ekaterina Krivonogikh - aka Luiza Rozova - born to his former mistress, cleaner turned £75 million multimillionaire Svetlana Krivonogikh, 49, who holds shares in a top bank and owns a prominent St Petersburg striptease club.

Luiza is known to have lived in the West - in Paris - during the war in . Putin is highly secretive about his private life. "I have a private life in which I do not permit interference. It must be respected,” divorced Putin barked in one interview. He deplored "those who with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies prowl into others' lives”.

Kabaeva in 2004 posed almost nude - except for furs - for Maxim magazine in Russia and was described as “full of sex” by a photographer. Earlier - after being temporarily banned in a doping scandal in 2001 - she was photographed naked but for strategically-placed lilacs as part of a Russian project “Twelve Months” by Ekaterina Rozhdestvenskaya.

Later, she appeared on a Russian show called One Hundred Questions for Adults when she was questioned about her private life by an audience of children. In one clip, was asked by a young boy if she had met her “ideal man” to which she replied giggling: “I have.”

She was then asked who the mystery man in her life was but would only reveal “he’s a very good man, a great man” though she added: “'I love him very much.” Kabaeva said: "Sometimes you feel so happy that you even feel scared.”

The pictures were published by VChK-OGPU soon after its main channel was deleted this month on Telegram, in an apparent move by the Putin authorities. Last September, Dossier Centre investigative news outlet confirmed the longstanding speculation that Kabaeva had two sons with Putin.

Astonishingly, the boys secretly have had British and New Zealand citizens as governesses, but now due to Putin’s war, the Russian ruler recruits South African citizens to teach English to his heirs. The children live under the permanent guard of FSO [Federal Protective Service] officers. “The brothers have little contact with their peers and see little of their parents, but they appreciate the rare moments they manage to spend with their father,” said Dossier Centre

They do not attend schools and are taught in Putin’s palaces like the royal children of the last Russian tsar. This week’s revelations are likely to infuriate Putin who has kept the sons hidden and even refuses to acknowledge his relationship with Olympic gold-medal winning Kabaeva, 41, which has existed since 2008, and perhaps earlier.

Dossier Centre said it had found pictures of the boys but did not publish them for “ethnical reasons”, yet believes the lavish lifestyle of the secret children is of legitimate interest.