Vladimir Putin's high command has been rocked by a damaging sex scandal, with a top war official revealed to have been using a military plane to transport his mistress around Russia. Reckless social media posts by 23-year-old Maria Shalaeva show her being whisked away on a defence ministry Ilyushin-76 aircraft for a weekend getaway to Rostov-on-Don - location of the war headquarters of the Russian armed forces.
One independent media outlet even named Putin's trusted defence minister Andrei Belousov as the suspected lover. The 66-year-old is a notorious womaniser and his photograph does appear on a video she posted. It is also clear from one clip that her lover has grey hair, as does Belousov, who was a Kremlin apparatchik before becoming defence minister. However, there are strong indications that her man - apparently seen in shorts from behind on the plane - is younger.
Whatever the case, he is plainly a senior official figure in the Russian power structure, and that the disclosure triggered a wave of speculation as to the identity, plus fury over what is seen as a breach of security.
As the scandal unfolded today, military sources indicated that the "sugar daddy" had been visited "at work" by the secret services after her revelations.
Shalaeva, from Yekaterinburg, boasted in posts - now deleted - that she was flying to Rostov-on-Don, a city she had visited before with her lover, even though the airport is closed to all but military planes.
Her beloved booked her a manicure in the city, she said.
She said: "Who's saying planes don't fly to Rostov? They do - just not all of them, and not for everyone. Anyway, I flew back to Rostov again. Can't seem to let it go."
Of her lover, she says: "A Kremlin man, though, that's another story. Reliability level is 200%."
Ms Shalaeva further admits to bringing her three-year-old son Tim on the trip, leading to speculation he is also the son of her lover.
She bragged: "At three years old, he's already flown in a military aircraft. Tim got to sit right in the cockpit and even grabbed some crisps from the pilot.
"We were greeted warmly. Timmy was chilling, watching cartoons the whole ride...."
Her lover "says I'm yebobo [crazy], sometimes asks if I ever had concussion", Shalaeva admitted.
She added: "He even offered to get me enlisted, but said I'd be discharged right away for a mental disorder."
She said he was "not military!! Not FSB either! Now, I know who he is, but I'm not allowed to say."
Belousov is not a career soldier but an economist and civilian technocrat.
While he holds no formal military rank, his role gives him authority equivalent to or greater than that of Russia's top generals.
At Rostov, the couple and her son were met by a "very expensive foreign car" which some have suggested was a Maybach.
It was Nexta independent media - a respected outlet originally from Belarus which is now based in Warsaw - which linked her to Belousov, without giving any verification.
Nexta said: "In private posts, Shalaeva hints that it's Belousov himself, the new defence minister of the Russian Federation [who is her lover].
"The Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation flies his mistress on a military plane," it stated.
It was the media in Rostov which originally highlighted the scandal without naming the suspected lover.
Other Russian outlets likewise refrained from speculating on the identity.
Retired Major General Vladimir Popov insisted: "Everyone will be found and punished."
Popov made clear that Belousov is responsible for the abuse in use of a military plane.
He continued: "If this reaches the defence minister, I expect he'll come down hard for such poor oversight. And from there, the punishment will trickle down."
Andrey Medvedev, a pro-Kremlin Russian military blogger, said: "It seems the Military Counterintelligence Department has plenty to do.
"I can imagine how much information the SBU [Ukrainian security service] and Western intelligence agencies get just from monitoring social networks.....
"In a photo posted by this reckless girl, you can find all sorts of interesting details to understand which planes fly to Rostov, who arranged those rides for her. And so on."
Another of Putin's advisers, Roman Starovoit, died suddenly last week just hours after being fired as Russia's transport minister, inevitably raising suspicions about the circumstances.
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