Proekt investigation finds that Putin’s reported partner Alina Kabaeva accompanied him to Kazakhstan in 2017

Vladimir Putin and Alina Kabaeva were both in Kazakhstan in February 2017, when Putin met with the country’s then-president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Proekt reported. The outlet’s journalists examined leaked data from Russia’s Federal Border Service.

Kabaeva, who has been described as Putin’s longtime partner and the mother of his sons, reportedly flew to Almaty on February 23 aboard a private Embraer Legacy 650 jet and returned to Russia four days later, on February 27. Putin’s official visit to Kazakhstan began that same day, but he had arrived several days before the visit’s announced start. State media reports corroborated his early arrival, describing an informal meeting between Putin and Nazarbayev at the Shymbulak ski resort.

Proekt calls the trip the only documented instance of Kabaeva being abroad during one of Putin’s official visits, with her “effectively serving as first lady.” Her presence on the trip was not officially reported.

The aircraft Kabaeva flew on, registration number D-AHOI, was operated by Air Hamburg, which later became part of VistaJet. Proekt estimates the flight would have cost about $26,000. The same jet was also used over the years by the families of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev.

Proekt suggests that Kabaeva may have accompanied Putin on other trips as well, citing his visit to Uzbekistan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in June 2016. Putin arrived there on June 23, and Kabaeva returned to Moscow on June 30 on a scheduled Aeroflot flight. The leaked data contain no record of her departure from Russia. The record may be missing because of an error or because Kabaeva flew from Russia to Uzbekistan on a government aircraft.