A picture has emerged showing Vladimir Putin’s secret son, Ivan, according to a Russian anti-Kremlin Telegram channel with links to law enforcement and the secret services. The boy, 10, who is kept hidden from ordinary Russians, is said to be the son of the Russian president and his long-time partner, the gymnast Alina Kabaeva, 41.

The Telegram channel said: "VChK-OGPU has obtained a photo of the most secret and probably the loneliest boy in Russia. This is Ivan Vladimirovich Putin. He hardly communicates with other children, spending all his time with guards, governesses, and teachers."

The boy is said to look like Putin when he was a child growing up in the Soviet Union.

Ivan is said to have a younger brother, Vladimir junior, now four, who is not pictured. Putin has never confirmed the young family he has with Olympic Gold-medal winning Kabaeva, who is 30 years younger than him.

In an unguarded moment five months ago, he referred to watching fairy tale films with his "little ones". To spare his blushes, state propaganda channel RT translated his words as his "junior family members".

Putin told a marathon televised question-and-answer session: "Our historic fairy tales and epic tales are being revived. I myself sometimes watch these with pleasure with my little ones." A flicker of a smile appeared on his face as he mentioned them.

While Putin and the Kremlin have always denied there is a relationship between the Russian leader and Kabaeva, independent Russian journalists have claimed they have two sons together.

Until now, the children have not been seen and are said to live out of sight behind high-security palace walls.

The pictures were published by VChK-OGPU soon after its main channel was deleted on Telegram in an apparent move by Putin's lackeys.

Last September, the Dossier Centre investigative news outlet confirmed the longstanding speculation Kabaeva had two sons with Putin.

The boys had British and New Zealand governesses, but due to Putin’s war, the Russian ruler recruited South Africans to teach English to his heirs.

The children live under the permanent guard of Putin's Federal Protective Service officers.

Dossier Centre said: "he brothers have little contact with their peers and see little of their parents, but they appreciate the rare moments they manage to spend with their father."

They do not attend schools and are taught in Putin’s palaces like the royal children of the last Russian tsar. This week’s revelations are likely to enrage Putin, who has kept the sons hidden and even refuses to acknowledge his relationship with Kabaeva, which is believed to have continued since at least 2008.

Dossier Centre said it had found pictures of the boys, but it did not publish them itself for "ethical reasons", yet believes the lavish lifestyle of the secret children is of legitimate interest.

Putin is highly secretive about his private life. In one interview, the divorcee snapped: "I have a private life in which I do not permit interference. It must be respected."

He deplored "those who with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies prowl into others' lives".

Putin is known to have grandchildren from his two eldest daughters - Maria Vorontsova, 39, and Katerina Tikhonova, 38, a high-kicking rock’n’roll dancer.

He also has another secret daughter, Ekaterina Krivonogikh, also known as Luiza Rozova. She was born to his former mistress, the cleaner turned multimillionaire Svetlana Krivonogikh, 49, who holds shares in a top bank and owns a prominent St Petersburg striptease club. Luiza is known to have lived in Paris during the war in Ukraine.

In 2004, Kabaeva posed almost nude - except for furs - for the Russian edition of Maxim magazine. She was described as "full of sex" by a photographer.

Previously, after being temporarily banned in a doping scandal in 2001, she was photographed naked but for strategically placed lilacs.

Later, she appeared on a Russian show called One Hundred Questions for Adults, where she was questioned about her private life by an audience of children.

In one clip, she was asked by a young boy if she had met her "ideal man", to which she replied giggling: "I have."

She was then asked who the mystery man in her life was, but would only say "he’s a very good man, a great man", adding: "I love him very much."

Kabaeva said: "Sometimes you feel so happy that you even feel scared."