Who are Putin's secret children?

MoscowAs in so many other aspects, also concerning the management of the family nucleus, Vladimir Putin bears little resemblance to most world leaders. Between transparency and overexposure, the Russian president opts for extreme hermeticism, which gives rise to mystery and rumors about extramarital affairs and illegitimate children. If the misfortunes of royalty are often the subject of the gossip press, in Russia investigative journalists are the ones who delve into the secrets of their head of state's most intimate circle. A tsar's life protected with the zeal of a spy.

Putin only officially acknowledges two daughters, who are around forty years old, from his only official marriage to Lyudmila Putina, with whom he was married until 2013. However, various investigations claim that he has fathered three more children: he has two school-aged children with his current partner and eternal lover, the former gymnast and Olympic medalist Alina Kabaeva, and he is also attributed the paternity of a young woman who lives in Paris and works in an art gallery.

The Parisian gallerist

Putin's alleged Parisian daughter has three identities. The first, Elizaveta Krivonogikh, inherited from her mother, Svetlana Krivonogikh. In 2020, the investigative outlet Proekt revealed that this multimillionaire had built her fortune thanks to her relationship with the Russian president. According to the publication –blocked shortly after–, they met in the 90s in St. Petersburg, when she was studying, working as a cleaner, and living in a komunalka, a communal apartment from the Soviet era. Her circle recalls how, after graduating, thanks to a benefactor, her life changed drastically. With the birth of their daughter in 2003, she acquired shares in various companies, including a major Russian bank, and bought luxury properties in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Monaco. 

Elizaveta, who is now about 23 years old and bears an "extraordinary" resemblance to Putin, according to the investigation, studied cultural and artistic management at a private institution in the French capital. She enrolled as Elizaveta Rudnova, the surname of a close friend of Putin who also had her mother's apartments in his name. The latest information suggests that the young woman is a manager in two Parisian art galleries where anti-war art and art by Ukrainian artists have been exhibited. Before that, she had sporadically worked as a disc jockey under a third pseudonym, Louisa Rozova, and with the outbreak of the war, she decided to close her Instagram account due to the hateful messages she received against Putin. She has never confirmed that Putin is her father, but she has not denied it either; instead, she has chosen to evade the question. Lately, the rumors have gone viral on social media, especially among young people.

Two children in a bubble

Despite living in a bubble and with no photos of them together, more is known about Putin's two children with Kabáyeva, thanks to a 2024 investigation by the Dossier Center project. The Russian president's relationship with this former gymnast, 29 years his junior, dates back at least to 2008, when the now-defunct Moskovski Korrespondent reported on her. The Kremlin denied it and shut down the newspaper. Since then, it has been a taboo subject that few have dared to comment on publicly. One of those who did was Volodymyr Zelensky, who in 2014, on Ukrainian television, dressed up as Kabáyeva in a gag that ridiculed Putin.

The couple's elder son, Ivan, was born in 2015 in Switzerland, and the younger, Vladimir Jr., in 2019 in Moscow. Both live with their mother in the presidential residence in Valdai, halfway between the Russian capital and St. Petersburg. Putin spends time there and, in fact, had an office built that is a replica of the one he has in another official mansion in the Moscow region, from where he supposedly works when he is not in the Kremlin. The children use fake identity documents and are completely isolated, shielded by about twenty anti-aircraft defense systems and protected 24 hours a day by agents of the Federal Protection Service. They have tutors and personal trainers, and according to the investigation, when they participate in school sports competitions, it is a cousin of Kabáyeva who appears to be in charge of them.

The two legitimate daughters

The only two daughters of Putin who officially exist are Maria and Katerina. Maria is 41 years old, a pediatric endocrinologist, and is dedicated to genetic research. And Katerina, who is 39, was a ballerina and now leads digital innovation and artificial intelligence projects. As a curious fact, the latter has a daughter with a Russian ballet master named Zelenski, who is not related to the Ukrainian president.

Despite the fact that the Kremlin leader has acknowledged them, they have rarely been seen together, only in photographs from the 90s, when he was a KGB officer and they lived in Dresden, in East Germany. And, while both develop their professional activities under the protection of the state, neither of them bears their father's surname. Maria goes by Vorontsova, and Katerina, Tikhonova. “I know that Western political culture implies that family members should be in the spotlight, but I don't think we are in a situation where this theatricality is appropriate,” Putin said on one occasion, making it clear that in this, too, he seeks to differentiate himself from the West.