The latest round of US sanctions against Russia has again scrutinized the family life of Russian President Vladimir Putin, revealing two new targets: Katerina and Maria, his eldest daughters.
Despite Putin’s dominance of Russian politics, he rarely speaks about his family and little is known about his private life or children.
Katerina and Maria have never publicly confirmed that the Russian leader is their father. Putin’s marriage to her mother Lyudmila, who was once a cabin crew member for national airline Aeroflot, ended in divorce in 2013.
The US says Katerina Tikhonova, 35, is a technical executive whose work supports the Russian government and its defense industry. Her sister Maria Vorontsova, 36, runs state-funded programs that have received billions of dollars from the Kremlin for genetic research and are personally overseen by Putin, she added.
A senior US official said Washington believes “Putin’s fortune is hidden with family members.”
According to the Kremlin’s website, Maria was born in 1985 and Katerina a year later, after the family moved to Dresden, then East Germany, where Putin was a KGB spy.
Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy, co-authors of Who is Mr Putin?, note in their 2015 biography of the Russian President that “personal information is remarkably scarce for such a prominent public figure. His wife, daughters and other family members, for example, are conspicuously absent from the public eye.”
Katerina Tikhonova, Putin’s daughter and deputy director of the Institute for Mathematical Research on Complex Systems at Moscow State University, attended a session 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 ‘n’ roll dancer, where videos show her performing strenuous routines like somersaults and somersaults in major international competitions.
But a 2015 investigation by Reuters news agency revealed her in a very different light, highlighting her connections and influence within Moscow’s elite.
According to the report, Katerina, who is now deputy director of the Institute for Mathematical Research of Complex Systems at Moscow State University, described herself at the time as the “wife” of Kirill Shamalov, the son of Nikolai Shamalov, a longtime friend of Putin, who is also a Shareholder of Bank Rossiya. The report estimated the couple’s corporate holdings at around $2 billion, in addition to other real estate and assets. Kirill is already under sanctions.
Maria, meanwhile, studied biology at St. Petersburg University and medicine at Moscow State University and is heavily involved in genetic research.
According to reports in Russian and Western media, she married a Dutch businessman and lived in the Netherlands for a while.
The Reuters report noted that while Maria specialized in the endocrine system, she used to work for Gazprombank, a lender with strong ties to the Kremlin elite. No estimates were immediately available for her net worth and holdings, and Leonid Volkov, chief strategist for jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, said the marriage was over.
get personal
Navalny has long worked to expose Putin’s wealth, and Volkov said the latest sanctions are welcome.
“This is a very important symbolic step,” he said, given the serious situation in Ukraine. “It is a very important symbolic step that means that as we personally persecute Putin, we recognize the extent of his very personal culpability in starting this bloody war.”
Maria and Katerina are Putin’s daughters from his marriage to ex-wife Lyudmila, although neither woman has publicly admitted that he is her father [File: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo]
The extent of Putin’s wealth is a hot topic in Russia.
The Kremlin last year denied owning an opulent Black Sea palace, Navalny claimed in a video that went viral on YouTube.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in February the sanctions included “absurd claims” about some of Putin’s assets.
“The president has no assets other than what he declared,” Peskov said.
During a press conference in 2019, Putin declined to directly answer a question about his daughters’ growing business clout and their ties to the government. He referred to Vorontsova and Tikhonova as “wives” and never recognized them as his children.
“I’m proud of her. They go on studying and they work,” Putin said at a press conference a few years earlier.
“They are not involved in any business activity and they are not involved in politics. They’re not trying to push their way anywhere,” he added.
Navalny’s group says the US should also sanction former gymnast Alina Kabaeva, who they say is now married to Putin and the mother of his youngest children [File: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP]
In a 2020 interview, Putin said he did not want to share information about his family because of “security concerns.”
He revealed he had grandchildren, but wouldn’t say how many.
“I have grandchildren, I’m happy. You are very good, so cute. I really enjoy spending time with them.”
Navalny’s group is also pushing for sanctions against Alina Kabaeva, a former gymnast and parliamentarian who they say is Putin’s second wife and the mother of his two youngest children. She is also Chair of the National Media Group, Russia’s largest media group.