普京绯闻情人登上《时尚》杂志封面

The newly appointed editor of Russian Vogue¹ has courted controversy² by putting Vladimir Putin's alleged³ mistress on her first front cover.

俄总理弗拉基米尔·普京的绯闻情人近日首次登上俄罗斯版《时尚》杂志封面，这让该杂志的新任主编陷入争议。

rhythmic⁴ Olympic gymnast Alina Kabayeva, 27, wears a £21,000 gold Balmain dress with her hands on her hips⁵." src="http://www.enread.comhttp://www.enread.com/upimg/allimg/101218/4_101218034312_1.jpg" width="350" height="456" />
The cover of the January 2011 issue. Former rhythmic Olympic gymnast Alina Kabayeva, 27, wears a £21,000 gold Balmain dress with her hands on her hips.
The January 2011 issue features former rhythmic（有节奏的） Olympic gymnast Alina Kabayeva, 27, wearing a £21,000 gold Balmain dress with her hands on her hips.

Viktoria Davydova’s decision to give her such prominence⁶（突出，显著） in the magazine is one that is likely to irritate the strong man Russian prime minister who has scornfully（轻蔑地） denied a newspaper report that he has left his wife Ludmila, with whom he has two daughters, for Miss Kabayeva.

While there is no substantive⁷ evidence that Mr Putin, 58, is romantically linked to Miss Kabayeva, who also happens to be an MP for Mr Putin's ruling United Russia party, the alleged affair has long been the hottest gossip topic among Russia's elite⁸.

The rumour⁹ first came to public prominence in 2008 when a Russian newspaper, owned by billionaire oligarch Alexander Lebedev, quoted a source as insisting the story was true.

Mr Lebedev shut the newspaper down soon afterwards claiming it had not been a commercial success though many suspected the real reason was to appease¹⁰（平息，满足） an angry Mr Putin.

The rumours¹¹ later escalated¹²（逐步增强） when bloggers claimed Miss Kabayeva had subsequently given birth to Mr Putin's love child. Mr Putin has angrily claimed that there is "not one word of truth" in any of the allegations, while Miss Kabayeva's spokesperson has refused to discuss what she derided¹³ as "nonsense."

Mr Putin has rarely been seen in public with his wife Ludmila in recent years, citing a heavy workload¹⁴. He married Ludmila, a former air hostess, in 1983, the same year as Miss Kabayeva was born.