Putin’s family, which is rarely seen: photos of the daughters of the Russian president, taken when he first came to power
Back in 2020, one of Putin’s former confidants shared rare photos of the Russian president’s two daughters from his private collection. In the pictures, the girls – Putin’s daughter with his ex-wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva, to whom he was married for 30 years – play games and spend time with his own sons. They were released after Pugachev’s ugly legal battle against the Russian state, which he lost in 2020.
Both of Putin’s daughters are now in their 30s, but these photos show the president’s pride and joy when they were teenagers in the Kremlin and at Pugachev’s dacha or country house outside Moscow. Pictured (left to right): Alexander and Viktor Pugachev and Maria and Ekaterina Putin in the Kremlin Library.
Pugachev’s sons feature prominently in the photoset and appear to be close friends of Putin’s girls. Their father, who has since been exiled from the country, left his Russian wife to have three children with his British mistress Countess Alexandra Tolstaya, a relationship that eventually ended. Pictured: Ekaterina (right) watches her sister Maria play billiards with Pugachev’s son Alexander (second from left) and Viktor (left) in the Kremlin in the early 2000s.
The photographs also provide a glimpse into the luxurious childhood Putin gave to his daughters. Here, Ekaterina and Maria Putin (pictured in the center) smile with members of the Russian pop group Strelki in the early 2000s.
Pictured (left to right): Alexander Pugachev, Katerina and Maria and Viktor Pugachev at the country house of Russian billionaire Sergei Pugachev in the early 2000s.
Sergei Pugachev (right) shakes hands with President Vladimir Putin shortly after he came to power in the early 2000s.
Maria Putina and Viktor Pugachev talk during a private party at the country house of Putin’s former friend Sergei Pugachev.
Katerina Putina looks at Pugachev’s son Alexander during a party at his dacha in the early 2000s.
Putin’s eldest daughter, 36-year-old Maria, was born Maria Vladimirovna Putina, but now bears the surname Vorontsova. She is named after Putin’s mother, Maria Ivanovna Shelomova, and seemed destined to become a scientist from the very beginning. She showed great aptitude for science at school as a young child in East Germany and as a teenager in Moscow, before continuing to study biology at St. Petersburg State University.
After graduation, she entered the medical institute in Moscow. Since then, she has become a pediatric endocrinologist and one of Russia’s leading experts on dwarfism.
She recently appeared on Russian state television (not pictured) to discuss her research into genetic testing and efforts to combat rare genetic diseases in children. She is married to Dutch businessman Jorrit Faassen, with whom they have a child together, making the President of Russia a grandfather. Here she is pictured on BBC Russia in 2019.
Katerina Tikhonova, born Ekaterina Vladimirovna Putina, is the second child of the President of Russia and the younger sister of Maria. Katerina also dropped Putin’s last name, instead taking the middle name of her maternal grandmother, Ekaterina Tikhonovna Shkrebneva. She was born in August 1986 and attended the same schools in East Germany and Moscow as her sister, but she had a completely different set of interests.
Although the 35-year-old is now the director of the Institute for Mathematical Research of Complex Systems at Moscow State University, and also studied at St. Petersburg State University, Katerina is perhaps best known for her success as a rock and roll dancer. . Katerina became a member of the Russian Council for the Development of Physical Culture and Mass Sports back in 2019, and also played a key role in the development of acrobatic rock and roll, which has long been a niche discipline. Katerina was previously married to Kirill Shamalov, co-owner of the Russian petrochemical company SIBUR Holding, son of the co-owner of one of the largest banks in Russia. The couple divorced in 2018 when it was revealed that their combined assets were around $2 billion.