Despite Putin’s dominance in Russian politics, he rarely talks about his family and little is known about his personal life or that of his children. Katerina and Maria have never publicly confirmed that the Russian leader is their father. Putin’s marriage to their mother Lyudmila, who was once a cabin crew member with national carrier Aeroflot, ended in divorce in 2013. The United States says Katerina Tikhonova, 35, is a technology executive whose work supports the Russian government and its defense industry. Her 36-year-old sister, Maria Vorontsova, is leading government-funded programs that have received billions of dollars from the Kremlin for genetic research and are personally overseen by Putin, he added. A senior US official said Washington believed “Putin’s assets are hidden from family members.” According to the Kremlin website, Maria was born in 1985 and Katerina a year later after the family moved to Dresden, then in East Germany, where Putin was a KGB spy. Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy, co-authors of Who is Mr Putin ?, note in their biography of the Russian president in 2015 that “personal information is extremely scarce for such a prominent public figure. “His wife, daughters and other members of his family, for example, are clearly absent from the public sector.” Katerina Tikhonova, Putin’s daughter and deputy director of the Institute for Advanced Mathematical Research at Moscow State University, attended a meeting of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum last year. [File: Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters] Katerina is best known – at least on YouTube – as an acrobatic rock and roll dancer, where videos show her performing grueling routines such as flips and rolls at major international competitions. But a Reuters poll from 2015 exposed it in a rather different light, highlighting its connections and influence among Moscow’s elite. The report states that Katerina, who is now the Deputy Director of the Institute for Advanced Mathematical Research at Moscow State University, described herself at the time as the “wife” of Kirill Shamalov, son of Nikolai Shamalov, a longtime friend of P . also a shareholder of Bank Rossiya. The report estimates that the couple’s corporate stake amounts to approximately $ 2 billion, in addition to other real estate and assets. Cyril is already under sanctions. Maria, meanwhile, studied biology at St. Petersburg University and medicine at Moscow State University and is actively involved in genetic research. According to Russian and Western media reports, she married a Dutch businessman and lived for a while in the Netherlands. The Reuters report notes that while Maria specialized in the endocrine system, her husband worked for Gazprombank, a lender with strong ties to the Kremlin elite. No immediate estimate was made of their assets and property, and Leonid Volkov, chief strategist for jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, said the marriage was over.
I become personal
Navalny has been working for some time to expose Putin’s wealth, and Volkov said the latest sanctions were welcome. “This is a very important symbolic move,” he said, given the gravity of the situation in Ukraine. “This is a very important symbolic move, which means that we are personally chasing Putin, realizing how much personal guilt he’s at the start of this bloody war.” Maria and Katerina are Putin’s daughters from his marriage to his ex-wife, Lyudmila, although no woman has publicly admitted to being their father. [File: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo] The extent of Putin’s wealth is a sensitive issue in Russia. The Kremlin last year denied owning a luxury mansion on the Black Sea, Navalny said in a video that went viral on YouTube. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov said in February that the sanctions included “absurd allegations” about some of Putin’s assets. “The president has no assets other than what he has declared,” Peshkov said. During a press conference in 2019, Putin declined to immediately answer a question about his daughters’ growing business influence and ties to the government. He referred to Vorontsova and Tikhonova as “women”, never recognizing them as his children. “I am just proud of them. “They continue to study and work,” Putin told a news conference several years earlier. “They are not involved in any business and they are not involved in politics. “They are not trying to push anywhere.” Navalny’s team says US should also impose sanctions on former gymnast Alina Kabaeva, who is said to be now married to Putin and a mother with his youngest children [File: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP] In an interview in 2020, Putin said he did not want to share any information about his family because of “security concerns.” He revealed that he had grandchildren, but did not say how many. “I have grandchildren, I’m happy. They are very good, so sweet. I really like spending time with them. ” Navalny’s team is also calling for sanctions against Alina Kabaeva, a former athlete and lawmaker who is Putin’s second wife and mother of two younger children. He also chairs the National Media Group, Russia’s largest media group.
