Today’s Vogue cover fodder: Alina Kabaeva, alleged mistress of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, graces the cover of Vogue Russia’s January 2011 issue. Scandal!
Kabaeva is a 27-year-old retired rhythmic gymnast, having won two Olympic medals (as well as 18 world championship medals and 25 European championship medals). But most people in Russia know her as the girl who diddled Vlad. Explains Fashionista:
Two years ago, when Putin was still President and still married to wife Ludmilla (as he still is today), stories circulated in the press that Putin was to marry Kabaeva. To stoke the fire a bit, the headline between Kabaeva’s legs translates to “Her Main Victory,” a Russian reader tells us.
The January cover is the first for new Russian Vogue EIC Viktoria Davydova. She succeeded beloved editor Aliona Doletskaya, who may be taking over Dasha Zhukova’s now vacant top spot over at POP. Fashionista reports that readers are not at all pleased with Davydova’s cover pick, or the direction she is taking the mag. As one former fan wrote on The Fashion Spot: “What a downgrade, I am completely shocked and disappointed. What on earth were they thinking about when they picked this shot? Everything is just wrong about this cover and why Alina? I am so angry, I don’t even want to buy the magazine this month.”
The cover does look rather amateur, and we’ve already seen that gold Balmain dress seven times. Dare we ask: is this the Russian equivalent of Monica Lewinsky snagging the cover of Vogue? Well, of course it’s not. But it’s close.