Who are the daughters of Vladimir Putin facing US sanctions?
The identities of Putin’s daughters has never been confirmed by him or the Kremlin and no photographs of them as adults have ever been officially released. Even the number of children Putin has fathered is subject to intense speculation.
Officially, Putin has two children, Maria and Katerina, from his marriage to Lyudmila Putina, a former Aeroflot steward whom he divorced in 2013, becoming the first Russian leader to divorce since Peter the Great in 1698.
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 said his daughters were “taking the first steps in their careers”, and they were “not involved in business or politics”. However, both daughters have since launched business ventures.
Katerina Tikhonova, 35, the younger daughter, was born in Dresden in 1986 while Putin was working as a KGB spy. Tikhonova, who uses the surname of her maternal grandmother, studied at St Petersburg State University and Moscow State University and has 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 held in Switzerland.
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