[8] Her younger sister, Leysan Kabaeva, is the general director of a real estate agency and in 2016 was appointed as a judge of the Almetyevsk City Court in Tatarstan by Russian president Vladimir Putin.

[12][13][14] In her early teens, Kabaeva moved to Moscow, where her mother took her to the Russian head coach, Irina Viner.

At the time, she was the youngest member of the Russian squad, competing alongside internationally recognized teammates Amina Zaripova and Yana Batyrshina as well as Irina Tchachina.

[16][17][18] At the 2001 World Championships in Madrid, Spain, Kabaeva won the gold medal for the Ball, Clubs, Hoop, Rope, the Individual All-Around, and the Team competitions.

At the 2001 Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia, Kabaeva won the gold medal for the Ball, Clubs, and Rope competitions, and the Silver in the Individual All-Around, and Hoop.

However, Kabaeva and her teammate, Irina Tchachina, tested positive to a banned diuretic (furosemide), and were stripped of their medals.

[20] Kabaeva won the All-Around Gold Medal at the 2003 World Championships, as well as the event final in Ribbon and Ball ahead of Anna Bessonova from Ukraine.

[24] On 5 March 2006, Kabaeva won the Gazprom Moscow Grand Prix, with fellow Russians Vera Sessina and Olga Kapranova, taking the Second and Third places.

Viner selected rising upcoming gymnast Evgenia Kanaeva from Russia's National Team as the replacement.

[26] Kabaeva finished fourth in all-around qualifications at the 2007 World Championships but did not advance into the finals due to the two per country rule, with Vera Sessina and Olga Kapranova placing ahead of her.

[27] Kabaeva did qualify for the ribbon final where she won a bronze medal behind Sessina and Ukraine's Anna Bessonova.

Her selection as a torch bearer generated controversy in the international media because of her alleged close relationship with President Vladimir Putin.

In her capacity as a Member of Parliament, she voted for a number of controversial laws that were speedily adopted in 2012 and 2013, including the Anti-Magnitsky bill banning inter-country adoption (of Russian orphans) by families in the United States, as well as the Russian gay propaganda law making the distribution of "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships" among minors a punishable offense, the extrajudicial ban on access to websites which may host materials violating copyright laws, and the reorganization of the Academy of Sciences.

[62] In the following years, the status of Kabaeva and Putin's relationship became a topic of speculation, including allegations that they have multiple children together.

[69] According to United States and European security officials, Kabaeva has spent long periods of time in Switzerland since 2015, at residences in Lugano and Cologny.