[imagesource: American Photo Archive / Alamy]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has categorically stated that he does not like to talk about his private life or family to the general public.

As a result, there’s also a cloud of secrecy around his possible mistress, Alina Kabaeva (dubbed “Russia’s Eva Braun”), who we know about only because she is allegedly hiding out in Switzerland as he wages war on Ukraine.

Putin allegedly has four children with her, although these details have never been confirmed.

The latest round of US sanctions has put a target on his two adult daughters, Maria Vorontsova, 36, and Katerina Tikhonova, 35.

The girls were born during Putin’s marriage to Lyudmila Putina, now his ex-wife. Here they all are, identities protected, on holiday in 2002:

The BBC reported that one US official believes that “many of Putin’s assets are hidden with family members”, which is why Putin’s daughters are suddenly being targeted.

A portrait of who his two daughters are had to come from scattered documents, media reports, and the occasional public announcement as Putin and the Kremlin have not ever officially identified them, reported The Guardian:

Putin, who has very rarely spoken publicly about his children, responded to questions at his annual press conference in 2015, saying his daughters had not fled the country, as had been speculated.

“They live in Russia. They have never been educated anywhere except Russia. I am proud of them; they continue to study and are working,” he said. “My daughters speak three European languages fluently. I never discuss my family with anyone.

“They have never been ‘star’ children, they have never got pleasure from the spotlight being directed on them. They just live their own lives.”

Putin went on to say that his daughters were “taking the first steps in their careers”. Since then, they seem to have indeed entered into their own business ventures.

After studying biology at St Petersburg University and medicine at Moscow State University, Maria is a paediatric endocrinologist focusing on the effects of hormones on the body:

Aside from co-writing a book on stunted growth in children, and being listed as a researcher at the Endocrinology Research Centre in Moscow, she’s a businesswoman, too:

In 2019 Vorontsova, who lives in a penthouse apartment opposite the US embassy in Moscow, gave an interview on Russian state TV revealing plans for a £500m medical venture aimed at helping to cure cancer.

She is married to Russian-born Dutch businessman Jorrit Joost Faassen, and they live in the “penthouse of an exclusive Amsterdam apartment building”.

Amsterdammers have tried to persuade her to talk to her father regarding the invasion of Ukraine, but apparently, she supports him.

Then there’s the youngest, Katerina, who studied at St Petersburg State University and Moscow State University. She graduated with a master’s degree in physics and mathematics:

As well as studying, Tikhonova has a passion for Japanese culture and acrobatic rock’n’roll dancing, an athletic form of boogie-woogie. In 2013 she and her dance partner came fifth in the world championships in Switzerland.

It was footage from her dance competitions, compared with pictures from the website of Moscow State University, where she works, that helped to first establish that Tikhonova was Putin’s daughter in 2015.

She was married to Kirill Shamalov, the son of a long-time friend of Putin’s, Nikolai Shamalov, the co-owner of Rossiya Bank, described as “the personal bank” of top Kremlin officials by the US government.

Their 2013 wedding was thrown into the public’s eye after photos of the secret event leaked.

It was apparently a three-day ceremony at the exclusive Igora ski resort and involved a sleigh drawn by three white horses.

Their lavish lifestyle continued well into their marriage, with Shamalov voted once by Forbes as Russia’s youngest billionaire, they reportedly owned a luxury £4 million beachfront villa in the French resort of Biarritz.

That eight-bedroom villa was broken into by anti-Putin protesters last month:

[They] posted a video on social media declaring: “This house was bought with the money stolen by Putin and the Russian mafia.”

They said: “Instead of a luxurious retreat for the oligarchs Putin-Shamalov, we decided to organise a place here for rehabilitation and life for the victims of the Putin regime, especially refugees from Ukraine and Russia who have been forced to flee from war, repression and torture prisons. The time when dictators and oligarchs could rob their own countries and live carelessly in villas in Europe is past.”

Now that’s a great story.

Anyway, Tikhonova is now divorced and working as the head of a new $1,7 billion artificial intelligence institute at Moscow State University.

[sources:guardian&bbc]