AGI Vladimir Putin’s two daughters could also be on the next EU sanctions list, in response to the war crimes committed in Bucha. Katerina Tikhonova, 35, and Maria Vorontsova, 36, are on the latest draft of the Brussels target list.
The two women also came under US crosshairs, according to a senior White House executive.
But the only (official) daughters of the Russian leader have managed to piece together only scattered details that have never been confirmed by the Kremlin, which treats the president’s private life as a state secret. The result of Putin’s marriage to Lyudmila Shkrebneva, from whom he divorced in 2013The two young women hardly appear in public anymore, they have changed their surnames for data protection reasons and their physical appearance is hardly known.
Her mother, a former Aeroflot stewardess, also stepped completely out of the spotlight after her divorce; in the past it was even rumored that she was imprisoned in a monastery. Over the years, several journalistic inquiries have considered rebuilding the lives of Putin’s only two daughters.
© NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP
Vladimir Putin and exwife Lyudmila Shkrebneva
The youngest, Katerina, is a mathematician and also an acrobatic rock ‘n’ roll dancer. The surname chosen for her “undercover” identity is “Tikhonova”, like that of her grandmother. Two years ago, she was appointed head of a new institute dedicated to researching artificial intelligence at Moscow State University, which media reports say will receive public funding worth an estimated $2 billion.
Tikhonova has held top positions in Russian science for several years and is in charge of major statefunded projects. Nine years ago she would have married the son of an oligarch close to her father, Kirill Shamalov, but they were rumored to have divorced back in 2018.
The eldest daughter Maria, on the other hand, is a genetic expert on childhood diseases. She is married (but some say divorced) to Dutch manager Jorrit Faassen. He would live in Switzerland. According to investigative journalist Serghei Kanev, Vorontsova “owns an important stake in a megaproject to build a large clinic near St. Petersburg designed to attract patients from Europe and the Persian Gulf,” a project now threatened by sanctions . The couple have two children who make Putin a grandfather.
Confirmed by @Reuters: Katerina Tikhonova is Putin’s daughter, and she is worth $2 billion https://t.co/XCzZ8z96Jy pic.twitter.com/9IXYnoeBLh
exes (@exes) November 10, 2015
Fassen has worked extensively in Russia at GazprombankInvest and Stroytransgaz, and his father is a former colonel in the Dutch Army. Putin may have spoken of the two daughters once or twice in his entire political career: “They are taking their first steps in their career, but they are making good progress,” he said at a press conference years ago, “they are not involved in business or politics.
They were never little “stars”, they never enjoyed being in the limelight. They just live their lives. You live in Russia. They were not trained anywhere except in Russia. They speak three European languages fluently.
Even before the divorce, there were persistent rumors about Putin from an extramarital relationship: the protagonist was and is the former champion of rhythmic gymnastics and former deputy Alina Kabaeva, 38, with whom she also wants to have two children. The alleged lover was hidden in Switzerland for a long time. Recently, news surfaced of another daughter who was never recognized: Luiza Rozova, an 18yearold influencer said to be the daughter of a relationship with Svetlana Krivonogikh, 45, a former cleaning lady turned multimillionaire.