Little is known about the family of Russian President Vladimir Putin
Hi, this is Hot Mic and I am Nidhi Razdan. Last week, the US and the European Union decided to increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin by imposing new sanctions. This time his two adult daughters were targeted. The Russian public does not know much about Putin’s family or his personal life. Her daughters, who are in their late thirties, have been kept out of the public eye for most of the time.
So what do we know about him and about Putin’s personal life?
Putin has two daughters, one is 37-year-old Katrina Tikhonova and the other is 36-year-old Maria Vorontsova. Sanctions against her mean her assets will be confiscated and she cannot travel to Europe. US officials believe that they also have a large part of Putin’s wealth hidden. Both daughters are from Putin’s previous wife, Lyudmila Shkrebneva, who was an air hostess at Russia’s largest airline Aeroflot when she began dating Putin in the 1970s.
The story is such that when Lyudmila met Putin for the first time on a double date, she did not think much about him. Putin was not even dressed well. But before marriage in 1983, they dated each other for 4 years. Lyudmila and Putin divorced in 2014 after reports of Putin’s affair with 24-year-old Alina Kabaeva, 56, former Olympic gymnast, surfaced. They reportedly have another child.
According to the New York Times, Putin had denied relations with Alina. Putin told reporters, “I absolutely don’t like people who smell the personal lives of others and fantasize about their rotten nose.” And in fact, the Russian newspaper that first broke this story was It closed soon after. But the market for discussions about Putin’s relationship with Alina remained hot. Has gone into hiding.
There is a petition on the Change.org organization in which about 1 lakh people have signed. He has appealed to Switzerland to take action against him. The petition reads, “Why now, despite the sanctions on Russia, you are hosting him and his family, while Putin is ruining the lives of millions.” Now a Swiss TV channel has reported that the Swiss government has found no indication that Alina Kabaeva is in her country.In fact, the Leader of the Opposition Alexei Navelny conducted an investigation into Putin’s ties with Alina, which was raided after her arrest in January 2021.
Navalny alleged that Alina had benefited greatly from her relationship with Putin, had bought several luxury properties and was made chairperson of the board of National Media Group, a state media hosting company. This group has government stake in the media. Navelni had said at that time. There is no doubt that Alina Kabaeva fared better than others with a ball and a ribbon, but she would not have been able to manage TV companies and newspapers if she had not had ties with Putin.
Apart from this, there were reports of a child born out of another secret love affair of Putin, about a daughter. An online investigative site reported in 2022 that a woman named Svetlana suddenly got a stake in a bank close to Putin. The portal claimed that in 2003, Svetlana gave birth to a daughter of Putin’s strong stature and that her middle name is associated with Vladimir. The Russian parliament said at that time that the issue was not worth further comment on.
But if we talk about Putin’s daughters with Lyudmila, then Katrina has graduated in Physics and Maths and is married to Kirill Shamalov. He is the son of Nikolay Shamalov, a longtime friend and prince of Putin. The second daughter, Maria, who is reportedly the eldest, is a doctor. She married a Dutch man from whom she has reportedly parted ways. Putin has kept a tight grip on the plot of his life over the years. He almost never talks about his family. In his rare statement in 2012, he only said that my children are doing well, they are in Moscow. He studies and works part time. All is well in his personal life and workplace. I am so proud of them.”
In August 2020, he claimed that one of his daughters had participated in Russia’s Sputnik coronavirus trial. And that’s all we know about Putin’s family.
