19.

Italian and Swiss media spread rumors about Putin’s secret love child with Olympic gymnast Alina Kabayeva. The Russian president mysteriously disappeared in early 2015, prompting speculation that he was deathly ill. However, evidence later emerged suggesting that he was just welcoming their newborn daughter at the private Sant’anna di Sorgono clinic.

20.

In April 2008, a Russian newspaper, Moskovsky Korrespondent, published a story saying Vladimir Putin had left his wife Lyudmila to marry young Olympic gymnast Alina Kabayeva. Almost immediately afterward the newspapers’ publisher shut the paper down, teaching the Russian media a hard lesson about violating Putin’s privacy. In 2013, Putin and his former wife Lyudmila staged a TV interview to announce a peaceful divorce.