Vladimir Putin reportedly has a £105m love nest in the French Riviera with his gymnast mistress Alina Kabaeva. Russian tycoon, Shalva Chigirinsky, 76, claims he sold the sprawling property on the Cote d’Azur in 2009 when it was snapped up by a “serious shark” believed to be representing the Kremlin ruler.

The much younger Olympic gold medallist gymnast Alina Kabaeva, 42, has allegedly been Putin's clandestine partner for the past 18 years, despite the 30-year age gap. Rumour of the affair between then married Putin and Kabaeva had emerged a year before the villa was bought. Putin, since his public divorce in 2013, has forbidden any coverage of his private life.

The Villa del Mare, with its own bunker, is in the elite Roquebrune-Cap-Martin - and it is now a frozen asset amid a long-running French money laundering probe.

Set along the coast images show that the sumptuous villa has a large swimming pool and is set along many storey's.

“Villas like this simply don’t exist, when on one plot you can have everything,” said Chigirinsky.

“Closeness to Monaco, a helipad, a large swimming pool, an indoor pool in the guest house. The guest house itself is large. Big territory, 3.5 hectares [8.65 acres]. A bomb shelter.”

After he sold the sprawling villa estate, Kabaeva was a regular visitor there, as testified by servants and security guards, he said.

“I was told. And everyone was told….that Kabaeva lived there,” he told Russian interviewer Yury Dud.

“My former manager, who worked there before she was fired….claimed that Kabaeva lived there,” he said.

“Well, the security guards said so, and the local municipality knew about it.”

He was asked: “Does that make you think that this house was bought for Vladimir Putin?”

The tycoon replied: “That’s what the investigation currently underway in Paris believes.”

Putin evidently hates the West now - but a decade and a half ago was happy to have a bolthole on the French Riviera.

Villa del Mare was perhaps a prototype for a sprawling £1 billion Putin clifftop palace in Gelendzhik on the Black Sea which he reportedly shares with Kabaeva.

Earler this month Kabaeva has featured prominently during his four-day Chinese visit, appearing without any confirmation that she was Putin's companion. Acting on his behalf, she unveiled new film Red Silk, a espionage thriller highlighting the strong ties between Russia and China.