Vladimir Putin ‘regularly’ cheated on his long-term partner with an underage beauty pageant contestant who posed for a racy calendar marking his birthday.

The school-leaver was secretly smuggled into his official residence or a bolthole when gymnast Alina Kabaeva – now 42 – was away. Startling new revelations from Russian investigative journalists cover the despot’s relationship with Alisa Kharcheva, aged 17 when she was first seduced by Putin, it is alleged.

The makers of the calendar – from youth movement Nashi – aimed to gain sway with the then Russian prime minister and used girls posing for the racy calendar as bait to lure him, according to Proekt media.

He was sent the calendar with details of the girls’ contacts – and Putin fell for Alisa, who posed as Miss April.

While his obsession with student Kharcheva has been previously documented, the latest account gives new lurid details of Putin’s love life and “confirms a long-lasting relationship between the head of state and the young woman”.

It appears at the moment his partner and unofficial first lady Alina Kabaeva – mother of Putin’s two sons, Ivan, ten, and Vladimir jnr, six, and an Olympic gold medalist – is in China engaging in gymnastics diplomacy on behalf of Russia.

Footage shows her making a speech and giving last minute tips to students from her elite sportd academy.

“Along with the gift copy of the calendar, the students’ contact details were given to the Kremlin,” said the new account.

“Alisa’s phone rang soon enough – ‘less than a month later’, one interlocutor recalls.

“A voice on the other end greeted her and suggested a meeting at the prime minister’s suburban residence, apparently referring to Novo-Ogaryovo in Moscow region.

“The caller was likely a Putin aide, although one of our interlocutors repeats a rumour circulating among Nashi [people] that it was [Putin] himself, impressed by the photo of the beauty.

“Everyone who spoke to us agrees on one point — intimate relations began between Kharcheva and Putin.”

The visits, which began when Putin was 58, were timed to coincide with Kabaeva’s absences.

“The girl visited the prime minister regularly — these visits naturally coincided with the departures from the residence of Alina Kabaeva, who by then was already Putin’s main partner,” stated Proekt.

“His formal wife, Lyudmila, was no longer living with the prime minister.”

Later, he and Lyudmila divorced.

The Alisa visits were reportedly once every two weeks.

While Alisa’s role as Putin’s lover was hidden, she was not concealed from the public, appearing on TV talking about the calendar and fast-tracked into the finals of the Miss Russia contest.

“When she wanted to take part in the Miss Russia pageant, she immediately ended up in the final, broadcast by NTV, a channel owned by the state and Putin’s friends,” said Proekt.

“The whole country, without knowing it, watched the prime minister’s lover pass stage after stage — parading in a swimsuit and evening gown, answering the judges’ questions.”

Footage of her in the contest has re-emerged.

She did not win – perhaps because this would have triggered too much scrutiny.

But she came in the top ten.

The Nashi bosses sought to use her sex visits to Putin to peddle their influence – “to pass on this or that request”, said Proekt.

They wanted to turn her into a Russian version of Madame de Pompadour, lover and advisor to King Louis XV of France, claimed the report.

It was “the story of how a group of Nashists tried to get close to Vladimir Putin by using a minor girl.

“In fact, it was an attempt to repeat the legend of Madame Pompadour’s patrons at the court of Louis XV.”

But “our interlocutors cannot recall a single initiative that Alisa carried into Putin’s bed actually being implemented.

“Moreover, one of them believes that attempts to exploit the romance must have irritated Putin.”

While Putin – now 73 – eventually stopped inviting the teenager to his bedroom, Putin ensured a job was offered to Alisa’s sportsman father, it is alleged.

Alisa was “placed” at Russia’s top higher education institute MGIMO — and received a luxury Moscow apartment, according to the disclosures.

When asked about her links to Putin and whether he helped her receive a flat, Alisa did not deny the claims but said: “No one has ever asked me such stupid questions.”

Shwe insisted she had a mortgage on the apartment.

Today, she co-owns a successful chain of elite tanning studios.

The revelations follow a book which said that Putin publicly espouses traditional marriages but for himself prefers “free” relationships, sleeping with “a multitude of women”.

Putin “chose free relationships for himself”, according to the book ‘The Tsar in Person. How Vladimir Putin Fooled Us All’.

Putin once said: “I have a private life in which I do not permit interference.

“It must be respected.”

He deplored “those who with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies prowl into others’ lives”.