Children of Kremlin officials grew up in countries parents say they reject

Their world is filled with private jets, elegant Parisian apartments, ski holidays in Austria and studies at elite universities in London and New York.

His parents own sophisticated properties on the most exclusive avenues of European capitals. Their social media profiles are full of posts with designer dresses and participation in red carpet events.

A young woman posted photos of her 22nd birthday, poolside in a mansion of one of Putin’s oligarchs on the Adriatic Sea.

The Kremlin’s Children

While their parents publicly protest the West, their children grow up in the very countries whose societies they claim to reject.

“Obviously, it’s extreme hypocrisy,” said Daniel Treisman, a professor specializing in Russian politics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“They might not even see the contradiction,” Treisman said. “They believe there is this competition between the US and Russia, but why would that affect their daughters’ educational plans? Or where do they have their mansions?”

Putin himself criticized Russians who can “mentally” align themselves with the West in a speech last month, accusing them of thinking they are part of a “master race” and working with the “collective West” towards a goal. : “the destruction of Russia”.

“The Russian people will always be able to distinguish true patriots from those who are scum and traitors, and just spit them out like a mosquito that accidentally got into their mouths,” Putin said.

One of the first families of alleged Russian corruption and hypocrisy is that of Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s deputy chief of staff and spokesman – a role that makes him Putin’s loudest megaphone, the one that almost daily disperses the acid line. Russian president’s tough stance against the West.

The United States recently sanctioned Peskov, his wife and two adult children (from two previous marriages), stating that the family lives “lavish lifestyles that are incongruous with Peskov’s civil servant salary and are likely built on wealth.” of Peskov’s connections with Putin.

At least two of her children were raised in Western Europe before returning to Moscow as adults.

While the U.S. Treasury has not explained the questionable excesses, Peskov – who has been in office for nearly a decade and reportedly earned $173,000 in 2020 – was seen wearing a $600,000 designer watch and took a trip honeymoon that included a roughly $430,000-a-week yacht off the coast of Sardinia, according to an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Foundation founded by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Based on property records, social media posts and databases of traffic violations, the Anti-Corruption Foundation also revealed that Peskov’s wife, ex-wife and children own luxury vehicles and multimillion-dollar homes around the world – including in Russia and France – a display of riches that contrasts with the nearly 20 million Russians who live in poverty.

The impressive but seemingly inexplicable wealth of these families in Putin’s world, experts say, boils down to a single concept: kleptocracy.

“A kleptocracy is merely a state ruled by thieves,” said Jodi Vittori, an expert professor of corruption and global politics at Georgetown University in the US, “where the policies and decisions made are for the benefit of those thieves.”

A convoluted web of shell companies, offshore banks and hidden transactions often obscures their wealth, with accounts hidden within each other making it difficult to track where the funds are coming from.

The wealth accumulated by Russian kleptocrats is often spent in Western economies.

“They want to live in the West because the richest countries in the world are in the West. The amazing cultural centers are in the West,” Treisman said. “But beyond that, Western countries have a much more secure rule of law than Russia. So if they can put a lot of money in the West, they can feel more secure.”

The hypocrisy of Russian officials and their families enjoying the liberality of the West has been an open secret in Russia for years.

In 2016, a bill was presented to the Duma banning most Russian authorities who have minors from educating them at foreign universities, claiming that homeschooling would be the key to becoming true patriots. The project was not accepted.

Peskov’s 24-year-old daughter from second marriage, Elizaveta Peskova – whose racy social media posts have often become Russian and European tabloid news – has not shied away from the spotlight or controversy, as she told a Russian TV station that she feels “better in the European environment” and called Russia’s education system a “real hell”.

More recently, she contradicted her father’s public statements by posting “no to war” in her Instagram stories, the slogan used by Russians who oppose the war in Ukraine. The post’s image was captured and shared by Russian TV station Rain, but was quickly taken down.

As a child, Peskova reportedly attended the Ecole des Roches on the outskirts of Paris – where annual tuition is about a quarter of her father’s salary and extracurricular activities include flying lessons.

Peskova continued her Parisian education with an internship at Louis Vuitton and a marketing degree from a French economics school. She even interned for the European Parliament.

According to the Anti-Corruption Foundation, Peskova and her mother bought an apartment of almost US$ 2 million and 180 square meters, in 2016, in one of the most expensive neighborhoods of Paris, on Avenue Victor Hugo, between the Eiffel Tower, the Arch of Triumph and the lush Bois de Boulogne park. THE CNN unable to confirm purchase.

Peskova’s extravagance in France parallels that of her half-brother in Russia. A 2017 investigation by Navalny’s anti-corruption group found that Nikolay Choles – Peskov’s eldest son who grew up in England – traveled the world on private jets, owned luxury Moscow real estate and drove his fleet of luxury vehicles around the city amassing 116 traffic violations while allegedly unemployed.

“It certainly represents a high level of cynicism, at least, if not outright hypocrisy,” said Vittori, a professor at Georgetown.

Peskova called the sanctions and the notion that she is somehow allowing the war “totally unfair and unfounded” and told Business Insider she is “upset” that the restrictions prevent her from traveling.

In a statement on Telegram, Peskova wrote that she is “proud” to be Russian and that sanctioning adult children and “especially women” is “madness”. “There will hardly be a fair trial,” she added, “during a witch hunt and a frenzied hatred for everything Russian.”

Peskova – who, when contacted by CNN, has not commented on the details of this article at the time of publication – she is not the only Kremlin-connected daughter enjoying continental high society.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who called for a “post-Western” world order in 2017, sent his daughter to prestigious universities in London and New York.

Even the daughter of Lavrov’s alleged girlfriend apparently benefits from his influential position: She posted pictures of herself on a yacht, at the Austrian ski resort and in the seaside mansion of a wealthy oligarch, according to the Anti-Lavrov Foundation. Corruption.

Polina Kovaleva – whom the UK government refers to as Lavrov’s “stepdaughter”, although he is not officially married to her mother – owns a $5.8 million flat in one of London’s most expensive boroughs, according to reports. with recent sanctions imposed against her.

The Anti-Corruption Foundation revealed that Kovaleva bought Kensington’s apartment when she was 21. The apartment is within walking distance of Imperial College, which she also attended.

Lavrov’s much less visible daughter, Ekaterina Vinokurova, now 39, attended Columbia University in New York, where she lived for 17 years before earning her graduate degree at the London School of Economics. Both Kovaleva and Vinokurova were recently sanctioned by the UK.

“This sends a strong signal that those who benefit from the association of those responsible for the Russian attack are within the scope of our sanctions,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss wrote in a press release announcing the sanctions against Kovaleva.

Putin himself is no exception to the hypocrisy of harsh anti-Western rhetoric in front of family members or those close to him, taking advantage of what the West has to offer.

One of his alleged partners, who would be the mother of one of his daughters, became the owner of a $4.1 million apartment in Monaco just weeks after the child was born, according to an investigation by Russian independent media. Proekt, based on the so-called Pandora Papers.

His eldest daughter Maria is said to have married a Dutch businessman; the couple reportedly lived in a $3.3 million apartment in the Netherlands.

An eight-bedroom mansion in Biarritz, France, linked to his youngest daughter Katerina — the multimillion-dollar mansion was bought by her ex-husband Kirill Shamalov from Putin’s longtime friend and billionaire Gennady Timchenko — was recently raided. by activists and offered as a shelter for Ukrainian refugees.

Putin’s two daughters were sanctioned by the United Kingdom and the United States last week.

Peskov called the new measures Washington’s “frenzied tendency” to impose sanctions on Moscow. “Russia will respond flawlessly and do as it sees fit,” he added.

Putin is rumored to have more children out of wedlock, all of whom appear to have lived in Western countries. This information has always been denied by the Kremlin.

Despite his own family’s connections to the West, Putin recently pointed to other Russians with “mansions in Miami or the French Riviera, who cannot live without foie gras, oysters or gender freedom, as they call it.”

The problem with these people, Putin said on March 16, is that they are “there in their minds and not here with our people and with Russia.”

*With information from Drew Griffin and Jeffrey Winter