A Russian investigative journalist who revealed lurid alleged details about Vladimir Putin’s love life has been declared “wanted” by the Moscow authorities. Roman Badanin, 49, has been behind a string of disclosures that the Kremlin dictator has sought to hide from his people. 

Now living in exile, he is the chief editor of the investigative publication Proekt (Project) and the news outlet Agentsvo (Agency). The Russian Interior Ministry has not specified why he is on its wanted list, the Mediazona outlet reported on Wednesday (February 18). Last year, in a book, Badanin claimed that Putin, 73, publicly espouses traditional marriage and families, but for himself prefers “free” relationships, sleeping with “a multitude of women”. One was a relationship with under-age student Alisa Kharcheva, then 17, after she posed for a calendar for his 58th birthday.

“What went on in the Kremlin’s alcoves between a 58-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl only they know,” the book states.

Two years later, in a dress with a plunging neckline and featuring a cat, she posted a picture for the dictator titled ‘P*** for Putin’.

Badanin’s media revealed an earlier extramarital affair with cleaner-turned-multimillionaire Svetlana Krivonogikh, 50, which led to the birth of his secret love child, Luiza Rozova [Krivonogikh], now 22, who divides her time between Paris and Russia. The book with co-author Mikhail Rubin revealed how Putin’s two sons with Russian gymnast Alina Kabaeva, 42 and three decades his junior, use a fake surname – Spiridonov – and he also showed their photographs for the first time.

The boys, Ivan, 11, and Vladimir, 6, keen young gymnasts, have never been officially introduced to the public in Russia, nor has the Kremlin leader acknowledged his relationship with Kabaeva.

The Kremlin issued a “strict ban” on questions about the gymnast and her role in his life. Putin “chose free relationships for himself”, says the book ‘The Tsar in Person. How Vladimir Putin Fooled Us All’. It reveals that he “personally” paid for luxury Moscow flats from his secret fortune not only for Alina Kabaeva but also for another “three well-known gymnasts, colleagues of hers] in the national team of Russia.

This showed Putin “in person, as ruler, as man, for some reason wanted to make pleasant to a whole group of young women,” says the book. “Maybe, this was a generous gift to the friends of his lady, and maybe, something less elevated.

“One way or another, all this together led… among the Russian elite – and more broadly, in Russian society – [to the circulation of] persistent rumours: the president sleeps with a multitude of women, mostly significantly younger than himself.”

The book disclosed that “deputies [MPs], ministers and other insiders, with whom we spoke over years of journalistic work, more than once, lowering the voice, told us about all the new sexual connections of Putin – now with a model, now with a sportswoman, now with a ballerina, now with a journalist.”

The book contrasts his “back to basics” values, which he expects in Russia, with his espousal of traditional families having a large number of children. Privately, he and his inner circle see marriage as “a completely non-obligatory institution, in which cheating and polygamy are the norm, and every woman is dependent on the man [for] her successes in career and prosperity,” revealed the Badanin book.

“To have mistresses, to resort to the services of sex-escort or to start intimate flings with subordinates, became general practice among people of Putin’s circle.”

In July 2021, before the war, Badanin was labelled a “foreign agent”, and Proekt was listed as an “undesirable” organisation. There was also an order to censor some reports on people linked to Putin and their wealth. His media outlets have also highlighted rumours over Putin’s health and his habit of surrounding himself with doctors.

Badanin also revealed how Putin’s father gouged out his mother’s eye with a pitchfork. The violent attack came when his mother Maria was just 17 and as a result of the incident in which she lost her eye, Vladimir senior was ordered to marry her. The attack was “in a fit of rage” according to his media Proekt.