Russian President Vladimir and his now ex-wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has at least two daughters he rarely talks about.
He has two adult daughters with his ex-wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva: Maria, 36, and Katerina, 35.
One rumored mistress, Alina Kabaeva, was sanctioned by the US in August.
President Vladimir Putin is famously secretive of his personal life, and has fought hard to prevent the media and the world from knowing much about his family.
He has long made a concerted effort to shield his children from the spotlight.
Putin has never publicly acknowledged his children, though media outlets have for years speculated and reported about the two daughters Putin had with his ex-wife.
Further reports center around rumors that two extramarital affairs may have produced another two daughters.
But as international pressure mounts on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, sanctions have closed in on his personal networks and in particular, his children and rumoured girlfriends.
One daughter from his first marriage, Katerina Tikhonova, has been entrusted with a key job overseeing import substitutions as Russia reels under sanctions.
And in August, ex-gymnast Alina Kabaeva — with whom Putin is rumoured to have had two children — was sanctioned by the US government.
Here is what we know about the lives of Putin’s secret kids and girlfriends.
Putin had two daughters in his first marriage to former flight attendant Lyudmila Shkrebneva, to whom he was married for three decades until their divorce in 2013.
AP
Sources: Vladimir Putin, Reuters, Business Insider
Their daughter’s names are Maria and Katerina. Maria was born in Leningrad in 1985, and Katerina was born in Germany in 1986 when the family lived there during her father’s time in the KGB.Maria and Katerina Putin, from their father’s personal archive.
Reuters
Sources: Vladimir Putin, Reuters, Newsweek
Both girls are named after their grandmothers. Maria’s nickname is Masha and Katerina’s nickname is Katya.Putin’s father, Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin, and his mother, Maria Ivanovna Shelomova.
Kremlin
Masha and Katya are common Russian shortenings for Maria and Katerina.
Sources: Vladimir Putin, Reuters, Newsweek
When the family moved to Moscow in 1996, the girls attended a German-language school. The children were reportedly removed from school when Putin became acting president, and teachers educated them at home.Then-acting President Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila applaud during a concert after an award ceremony in Gudermes on January 1, 2000.
REUTERS
Source: Newsweek
“Not all fathers are as loving with their children as he is,” Lyudmila said in an undated quote on Putin’s government website. “And he has always spoiled them, while I was the one who had to discipline them.”
Vesti.ru screengrab
Source: Vladimir Putin
But as Putin gathered political power, his children saw him less and less, according to one of his early biographers.Then-Acting Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (L) and ultranationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky (R) speak to the media after a meeting in the Duma, Russian parliament’s lower house, in Moscow, 12 August 1999
STR/AP POOL/AFP via Getty Images
His first official biographer, Natalya Gevorkyan, interviewed him and his family in 1999.
The family was soon isolated and surrounded by security after Putin became prime minister for the first time, she told the BBC.
His daughters told her that they admired their father and were proud of him, but it appeared they didn’t get to see him much, she said.
Source: BBC’s “Putin”
Putin’s marriage may also have been loveless. Lyudmila “was not a happy woman” and Putin wouldn’t “hold” her, his biographer said.Then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila pray during an Orthodox Easter service in Moscow in 2011 in Moscow.
Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images
“I understood that [Lyudmila] was not a happy woman. She was not,” Gevorkyan, the biographer, told the BBC, speaking of her interviews conducted in 1999.
Gevorkyan said she had the impression Putin did not love her. She recalled Lyudmila as saying: “There are women who are admired by men, I think I am not that kind of woman. He will not hold me in his hands.”
Gevorkyan said Lyudmila’s tone was “more with respect” to her husband.
“I had the feeling that she really loved him,” she added. “And I had a feeling that she was not that much loved back. I didn’t have the feeling that it was a successful marriage for her.”
Putin and Lyudmila announced their divorce in 2013, the BBC reported.
Source: BBC’s “Putin”, BBC News
Maria studied biology in college and went to medical school in Moscow, while Katerina majored in Asian Studies in college. Both girls attended university under false identities.Putin and wife Ludmila arrive at the airport in Rostock-Laage, Germany on June 6, 2007.
Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images
Sources: Reuters, Newsweek
Maria, now 36, is a medical researcher and lives in Moscow with her Dutch husband, Jorrit Faassen.
AP
Sources: Reuters, Newsweek, Bloomberg
Maria and Faassen reportedly have a child — Putin told filmmaker Oliver Stone in 2017 that he was a grandfather. When Stone asked if he played with his grandchild, Putin replied, “Very seldom, unfortunately.””The Putin Interviews” was a four-part series that premiered on Showtime in May 2017.
Showtime
Sources: Reuters, The Independent, Bloomberg, Daily Mail
Meanwhile, Katerina reportedly lives a high-flying life, living in lavish apartments and acquiring a fortune.Russian President Vladimir Putin makes a toast during an award ceremony in the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia on Dec. 28, 2017.
Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool Photo via AP
Sources: Reuters, The Independent, Bloomberg, Daily Mail
Katerina, now 35, is an accomplished acrobatic dancer and has a senior position at her alma mater, Moscow State University, heading a $1.7 billion startup incubator.Katerina Tikhonovna, daughter of Vladimir Putin, dancing.
Jakub Dabrowski/Reuters
Sources: Reuters, Bloomberg
Katerina married Russian billionaire Kirill Shamalov in 2013. But the couple divorced in 2018, and the divorce case revealed they were worth $2 billion.Kirill Shamalov, the former husband of Putin’s daughter Katerina
Reuters/Kommersant Photo/Dmitry Dukhanin
Sources: Bloomberg, Reuters, The Guardian
But flight records suggest that in 2017, Katerina had begun a clandestine relationship with German ballet star Igor Zelensky. She had a daughter with him.Igor Zelensky the father of Katerina’s child pictured, in 2014. In 2016 he became director of the Bavarian State Ballet.
Tobias Hase/picture alliance via Getty Images
Zelensky has served as the director of the Bavarian State Ballet and the Munich State Ballet.
Source: Important Stories and Der Spiegel
Katerina secretly flew to Munich more than 50 times to see Zelensky between 2017 and 2019, with their daughter in tow.Igor Zelensky on stage in 2018 in Munich, Germany.
Gisela Schober/Getty Images
The relationship was revealed by a 2022 investigation that examined Katerina’s flight records, showing that she traveled with members of Putin’s presidential secret service.
Source: Important Stories and Der Spiegel
There are no official current photos of the girls. For Katerina, we found the slightly varying first names “Katerina”, “Katya”, and “Yekaterina,” and the last names “Putina,” “Tikhonova,” and “Shamalov.”Katerina Tikhonova (L), daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, dances with Ivan Klimov during the World Cup Rock’n’Roll Acrobatic Competition in Krakow, Poland, on April 12, 2014.
REUTERS/Jakub Dabrowski
Sources: Reuters, Newsweek
There are rumors that Putin has a third daughter with girlfriend and former Russian rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabaeva.Putin greets rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabayeva during a meeting with candidates to the Russian Olympic team for Summer Olympics 2004 at the presidential residence in Novo-Ogaryovo outside Moscow on March 10, 2004.
REUTERS/Pool AS
Source: New York Post
Neither the child nor the relationship with Kabaeva have been confirmed.Putin smiles next to Russian gymnast Alina Kabaeva during a meeting with the Russian Olympic team at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia on November 4, 2004.
REUTERS/ITAR-TASS/PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE
Source: Business Insider
Finally, an investigation claimed that a former cleaning lady, Svetlana Krivonogikh, had an affair with Putin and suddenly moved into one of St Petersburg’s wealthiest neighborhoods.An aerial view of St Petersburg’s prestigious Birch Alley, where one of Putin’s rumored mistresses was reported to live.
Google Earth
An investigation by independent Russian outlet Proekt claimed that the pair had a close friendship between the late 1990s and the end of the 2010s, which resulted in a daughter.
In that time, Krivonogikh went from a former cleaning lady to the billionaire owner of one of Putin’s favourite ski resorts, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
Krivonogikh’s daughter, born 2003, is called Elizaveta Vladimirovna Rozova, and also goes by Luisa. Identity papers do not indicate a father, but her middle name means “daughter of Vladimir.” She has not confirmed any relationship.A Google Earth image of St Petersburg’s elite Birch Alley complex.
Google Earth
The Proekt investigation remarked on Elizaveta’s “phenomenal resemblance” to Putin and many connections between the president and her mother, but no relation has been proven.
In an interview with Russian GQ, Elizaveta’s face was not depicted. When asked whether she looked like Putin, she agreed, but said “there are a lot of people similar to Vladimir Vladimirovich,” using an alternative, respectful name for Putin.
Putin has tried to shelter his children from the media, attempting to keep them out of politics so they can live normal lives.
Dennis Grombkowski/Getty Images
Sources: Reuters, Business Insider
Despite this, Katerina made her debut on Russian state TV as a biotechnology expert in December 2018.Katerina Tikhonova (R) on Rossiya 1 on December 7, 2018.
Rossiya 1
Source: Business Insider
Her appearance did not include comment on her being related to Putin. The link was briefly made public in the course of a dance competition, but later retracted.Katerina Tikhonova (L) and Vladimir Putin
REUTERS
Source: Reuters
In June 2021, Katerina addressed a conference that is Russia’s equivalent of Davos — but nobody called her Putin’s daughter, apparently out of fear of reprisal from the Kremlin.Katerina Tikhonova, deputy director of the Institute for Mathematical Research of Complex Systems at Moscow State University, on screen taking part in a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Russia, on June 4, 2021.
Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters
Source: The Washington Post
In late 2020, Putin announced Russia had completed its COVID-19 vaccine, although it had yet to complete clinical assessments. Putin said he gave the shot to one of his two daughters, but wouldn’t specify which one.Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the government via video link at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, on August 11, 2020.
Sputnik/Aleksey Nikolskyi/Kremlin via REUTERS
Sources: Business Insider, BBC, Politico
Putin said his daughter’s temperature decreased after getting two shots. “She has taken part in the experiment,” he said, adding, “She’s feeling well and has a high number of antibodies.”
Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo / AP Images
Sources: Business Insider, BBC, Politico
It was a rare acknowledgment for Putin, but one still shrouded in mystery.Russia’s President Vladimir Putin holds a meeting of the Russian Security Council at Moscow’s Kremlin.
Alexei NikolskyTASS via Getty Images
In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, prompting condemnation from around the world. Three weeks later an activist filmed himself inside what he said was a Biarritz apartment owned by Katerina’s ex-husband, saying he wanted to host Ukrainian refugees there.An image showing an activist flying a Ukrainian flag from the balcony of a villa linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Biarritz, France.
Russia Today
Source: Insider, The Insider.
In April, the US sanctioned Maria and Katerina, saying that they had “enriched themselves at the expense of the Russian people.” A statement said “This action cuts them off from the US financial system and freezes any assets they hold in the United States.”
Getty/Reuters
The Wall Street Journal said that the EU could also sanction the two women.
An EU spokesperson said the bloc is “currently discussing the proposals for further sanctions, including new listings of individuals and entities,” but could not comment on who would be targeted by them.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, The White House
The US announcement also contained more details about their work. saying that it has close ties to the Kremlin. Tikhonova’s work supports Russia’s government and defense industry, while Vorontsova’s genetics research programs are personally overseen by Putin, the White House said.The main building of the Moscow State University. As of 2021, Tikhonova was Deputy Director of its Institute for Mathematical Research of Complex Systems
Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images
Source: ABC News.
The US said it believed the women are hiding assets for Putin, which was its rationale for sanctioning them. The Kremlin expressed confusion over the decision, suggesting it was anti-Russian.
Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
A senior official at the Biden administration said: “We believe that many of Putin’s assets are hidden with family members and that’s why we’re targeting them.”
Putin’s top spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin found the decision “difficult to understand” and framed it as part of a “rabid” western animosity towards Russia.
Source: ABC News, Reuters.
The UK quickly followed suit with a raft of sanctions on Maria and Katerina, among others in Putin’s inner circle, aimed at hitting their “lavish lifestyles.”The villa registered in the name of Kirill Shamalov, Katerina Tikhonova’s ex-husband, in Biarritz, France.
Gaizka Iroz/AFP via Getty Images
Source: The Press Association.
In July 2022, as sanctions began to bite in Russia, Tikhonova was given a top post overseeing import substitutions.Putin meeting with the head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin in March 2022.
Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via Reuters
Tikhonova was appointed to the post at the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. State media reporting on this did not mention her relationship to Putin.
Source: RBC
