Watch pictures of Alina, an Olympian rumored to be dating Russian President Putin

Sochi: There was renewed speculation over Vladimir Putin's love life Saturday night after television footage showed his rumoured girlfriend wearing a ‘ wedding ring'. As the Russian President was hosting the Winter Olympics in Sochi, glamorous champion gymnast Alina Kabayeva, ( 30), was at a children's sporting event in the industrial city of Nizhnekamsk, where she showed her ring finger to TV camera crews, prompting a flurry of Internet comments.Putin, ( 61), was also shown wearing a wedding ring during a meeting with the Egyptian defence minister last week, before a Kremlin- friendly news website withdrew the picture saying it predated last June's announcement that he and his wife Lyudmila were to divorce.The Kremlin has previously denied claims that the President married Kabayeva in the town of Valdai in September.At that time Alexei Navalny, Putin's most charismatic political rival, tweeted, “ I'm told that Putin and Kabayeva are marrying today at the Iver Monastery. All of Valdai sealed off. However, Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, later dismissed the claims as “ an internet exercise to relieve boredom”. Putin's aides have repeatedly denied he is involved in a relationship with the gold medalwinning gymnast. Claims that the pair have children together have also been dismissed.Kabayeva is now a politician after retiring from a glittering career in gymnastics in which she represented her country at the Olympics twice.Rumours about Putin's alleged affair with Miss Kabayeva first surfaced five years ago when a Russian newspaper owned by the oligarch Alexander Lebedev reported that Putin wanted to marry his gymnast mistress. Putin angrily denied the story, and the newspaper was closed down shortly afterwards, which many attributed to Putin's rage.Meanwhile, the former KGB man indicated this week that he may stand for office again in 2018. Putin was first elected in 2000 and served two four- year terms until he handed control of the country to puppet president Dmitry Medvedev who served until 2012 when Putin was reelected, this time for a six- year term. If re- elected, the hardline ruler will have been in power for nearly a quarter of a century which will make him the nation's longest- serving leader since Joseph Stalin. Putin stepped out of the presidential limelight and became the prime minister in 2008 to observe a limit of two consecutive terms.