It was the story with everything – sex, power, spies and the extraordinary claim that President Putin intended to marry a beautiful Olympic gymnast half his age.

So alluring was the idea of romance between Mr Putin and Alina Kabaeva that publications all over Europe rushed to reprint a little-known Moscow newspaper’s report that the former KGB officer had divorced his wife Lyudmila secretly and would marry his lover on June 15.

Yesterday, however, Moscow Korrespondent admitted that the story had “no factual basis” after Aleksandr Lebedev, the billionaire owner of the newspaper, challenged staff to back up the claims or apologise.

Mr Putin, 55, reacted icily when questioned about the rumours during a visit yesterday to Silvio Berlusconi, the incoming Italian Prime Minister, in Sardinia. He told journalists: “In what you said, there is not one word of truth. I have always reacted negatively to those who with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies prowl into others’ lives.”

He noted that the lives of politicians were rightly visible to all but added: “There are limits and I have a private life in which I do not permit interference. It must be respected.”

Recovering his good humour, Mr Putin added, with a smile, that there was “a lot of talk in the press about beautiful young women. I don’t think it will surprise you if I said that I like them all.”

The Times has learnt that the tale has taken a darker twist. Staff at Moscow Korrespondent said that officers from the Federal Security Service, the successor to the KGB, had visited the newspaper twice since the story broke this week to interrogate its editor about its sources.

Mr Lebedev, a former KGB agent in London, accused his staff of lying. He also said that he had been warned to tighten his own security after the scandal, in an apparent reference to the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, the antiKremlin journalist.

Rumours about the romance were given added force by widespread speculation that the 25-year marriage of Mr Putin is in trouble.

Ms Kabaeva, 24, was noted for her extreme flexibility as a gymnast and won a gold medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics. She was dubbed one of “Putin’s babes” after reports that the President had ordered United Russia to put her and other young women on its candidate list to give the pro-Kremlin party a sexier image in the elections last year.

Ms Kabaeva, who has modelled naked, swathed in furs, now sits in the Duma, while United Russia elected Mr Putin as its leader this week.

Moscow Korrespondentsaid that Mr Putin had noted the ease with which Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, had divorced his wife to marry the supermodel Carla Bruni and planned to follow suit once he had left the Kremlin on May 7 to become Prime Minister. It said that Mr Putin had divorced in February and claimed to have learnt about his wedding to Ms Kabaeva from an event-planning company.

The company said that it knew nothing about the claims until journalists began calling to ask if they were true. The spokeswoman for Ms Kabaeva, in the Duma, called the report madness.

Despite publishing a retraction, staff at the newspaper were unrepentant. Igor Dudinsky, the deputy editor, told The Times: “I am absolutely convinced that the foundation of this story is true, that there was a romance.”

Mr Lebedev admitted that the story could have been planted to discredit his newspaper. He is a critic of Mr Putin and of Yuri Luzhkov, the powerful Mayor of Moscow. Mr Lebedev is also in a battle with city officials who are blocking distribution of the newspaper, which started last year to “tell the truth” about the capital.

The former Duma deputy also has enemies in Russia’s shadowy gambling industry, after he drafted a law to expel casinos from Moscow next year.

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