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Russia: Putin’s Daughters Target US Sanctions, Always Out of Public Sphere

The two daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who were sanctioned by the US on Wednesday because of the “horrors in Ukraine” after the invasion of the Russian army on February 24, have remained out of public life for the rest of their lives. sphere; little is known about them.

The US Treasury Department named the two women, Katarina Tikhonova, “a leading executive of a technology company that supports (…) the Russian defense industry” and Maria Vorontsova, head of a Russian-funded genetic research program “personally supervised”. by President Putin.

According to a senior US official, Washington is convinced that Vladimir Putin’s “assets” are “hidden”, that they have been passed on to the names of “members of his family”.

The official biography of the Russian president on the Kremlin website states that his daughter Maria was born in 1985, before the family moved to Dresden, the former GDR, where Vladimir Putin, then a KGB officer of the Soviet intelligence service, had been sent to serve. .

His second daughter, Katarina, was born the following year in the East German city.

Their unique photo depicts them, little girls, in similar costumes and their blond hair braided in pigtails.

In his – very rare – comments about them over the years, Vladimir Putin has revealed that his daughters received their university education in Russia, speak several European languages ​​and live in Russia.

However, the general public knows little about them, as the Kremlin takes care to keep the president’s private life strictly on the margins of the public sphere.

An endocrinologist and a mathematician

According to some Russian media, Maria Vorontsova is an endocrinologist and works for a medical research company focused on anti-cancer therapies, which is closely linked to the Russian state.

Russian media have also reported that Katarina Tikhonova is a mathematician and head of a science and technology institute affiliated with Russia’s most important public university.

She was also a professional figure skater and had participated in international competitions, according to the same publications.

In videos of races in which she participated, she is usually depicted in glittering costumes, in the arms of her partner, or as she performs acrobatic pirouettes.

During a press conference he gave in 2019, Mr Putin had avoided giving a clear answer when asked about his daughters’ growing influence and their relationship with the Russian state.

The Russian president had not even acknowledged at the time that Maria Vorontsova and Katarina Tikhonova were his daughters – he had simply called them two “women”.

Years later, however, during another press conference, Vladimir Putin would declare himself “proud of them.”

“They continue to study and work,” he would say, assuring that they have no “business” or “politics”.

In 2020, during another interview, the Russian head of state explained that he avoids giving information about his family for “security” reasons, while revealing that he has grandchildren, without specifying their number.

“I have grandchildren, I am happy. They are very beautiful, very cute. I appreciate spending time with them,” Putin said.

SOURCE: AMPE

Source: Capital

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