The former mistress of Vladimir Putin has been likened to the "director of an orphanage" in a new post on social media.
Alina Kabaeva, who was in a long term relationship with the Russian president for more than a decade until earlier this year, has been slammed for having "no elegance" at an inauguration event in the Kremlin.
Posted on the biggest Kabaeva fan Instagram fans took issue with the chosen outfit, which was a black dress with a huge white collar.
While many thought Kabaeva would stay away, it quickly emerged she was there and had taken several young students from her Sochi-based gymnastics academy with her.
The 41-year-old appeared in a group photo with the young girls who were all wearing similar attire.
One wrote: "Alina looks like the director of an orphanage! She has no elegance, she wears festive clothes at sports events, and when she goes to the Kremlin, she wears a maid's clothes."
And another slammed: "Dressed as nuns at the diabolical inauguration."
However, others expressed their love for the much-respected gymnast in the comments.
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One wrote that she was dressed with "modesty and taste," while another gushed: "Alina is a beauty – always restrained in everything, just like in clothes."
Earlier this year, Russian lawyer, ex-MP and political pundit Mark Feygin told Ukrainian TV host Dmitry Gordon that he believes that Putin has two young sons with Kabaeva.
According to Feygin, both sons, named Ivan and Vladimir, were delivered by Swiss-based Soviet-born doctor Dr Natalia Thiebaud Kondratieva, 63, who died suddenly one year ago, four days before her role in the Kabaeva births was made public.
Feygin said Putin is striving for: "A dynastic transfer of power within a totalitarian system...This is important to him...In the next 12 years, he must create conditions in the system under which no one except his heirs can be at the head of the state."
Feygin suggested that Russia is too "sexist" for Putin to hand over to his two elder daughters Maria Vorontsova, 38, and Katerin Tikhonova, 37.
Putin’s two eldest daughters were with his ex-wife Lyudmila Putina, once Russia’s first lady.
