Vladimir Putin’s mother is Jewish? The “document” has been circulating for a long time, there is no evidence to date

Passport exchange “delayed”

At the end of autumn, Lithuanian Facebook users started to share a copy of the application for issuing (changing) a passport. It contains information regarding Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

This name, the provided data and the photo in the application confirm that we are talking regarding the President of Russia. However, it cannot be authenticated despite the fact that three signatures similar to President of Russia.

Screenshot from fitzinfo.net/Alleged document naming Vladimir Putin’s mother as Jewish has been circulating online for a long time

It is not known how a copy of the request ended up on the Internet. Knowing that the president has worked in the security services and that he is very protective of his personal life, this would be unusual.

In the alleged application, the name, patronymic and surname, date of birth (October 7, 1952) and place (Leningrad, currently St. Petersburg) are indicated. The name of the now ex-wife Lyudmila coincides with the name of the president.

It is recorded that his father was Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin, his mother was Maria Ivanovna Shelomova. It is indicated that his father was Russian, his mother’s nationality was Jewish.

Judging by the information presented here, the passport was issued to the future president in 1968. on October 7, following turning 16. The request in question was submitted for changing the document following V. Putin turned 45, but for some reason only following a good three years, in 2000 itself. at the end

Screenshot from imago-images.com/A two-decade-old photograph was used in the alleged application to change the passport

Also, for some reason we ask to see photo taken around 1980

A copy of the document with comments in various languages ​​has been shared on Facebook for several years in groups and elsewhere on this social network, “X” (here, here), on various web pages (here, here), in the forums.

The nationality was determined from the last name

Narrative regarding V. Putin’s Jewish origin repeated on various websites, blogs and forums (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here) at least since 2017

True, in principle, there is no documentary evidence or testimony of people that this is true and officially confirmed anywhere. Almost everywhere, the copy of the request to change the passport and V. Putin’s behavior when visiting Jewish events, communicating with their representatives, etc., are referred to.

In one French blog as early as 2020. was laid out the whole story.

“A little more than 50 years ago, a boy was born in Leningrad, whose neighbors were a Jewish family. The friendly boy was immediately adopted by a neighboring Jewish family and was immersed in Jewish culture from an early age.

There he was fed Jewish food, read Jewish books and appreciated the respect of Jewish family members for each other,” states the record, which is still available now.

The boy’s name was the former Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, and he became Jewish from his mother, whose maiden name was Shelomovahalf.

This is confirmed by the request to change the passport, a copy of which is published on the Internet. The blog post also noted that under Putin, “the Russian Jewish community enjoyed a golden age.” With the permission of him, who was still working as the vice mayor of St. Petersburg, a Jewish school appeared in the city.

Later, dozens of synagogues were returned to the communities, the president used to participate in various Jewish events, one of which following saying, that the Soviet army put an end to the Holocaust. There are even statistical data showing that the hostile attitude towards Jews in Russia is not as strong as in some other countries (France, Poland, Ukraine).

Screenshot from Facebook/Alleged document naming Vladimir Putin’s mother as Jewish has been circulating online for a long time and in various countries

Another mentioned evidence of alleged Jewishness is the mother’s maiden name. According to Russian philologists, the last name is Shelomov originating from the Hebrew male name Shlom (Solomon, Russian Salomon). The ending -ov means dependence, in other words, Shelomov is the son of Solomon. Solomon was the most respected king of the Jews, the wisest of all men.

Another “mother” appeared

This legend is mixed up somewhere on the Internet with the story of Vera Putin from Sakartwell, who for a couple of decades until her death claimed to be the real mother of the Russian leader.

According to the woman, she got pregnant involved in an extramarital affair with a married man. This was their third child. The mother allegedly lost her son when he was ten – the father gave the boy away to an unknown major who might not have children, and never saw him once more.

The Russian leader has not publicly acknowledged that the woman’s story is true. It is officially stated that he was born in Leningrad in the family of Maria and Vladimir Putin. Both parents of the president in the 20th century. eventually succumbed to cancer.

V.Putina, who lived in the poor village of Metechi in Sakartvele, died in 2023. in May at the age of 97. Therefore, none of the parents – neither those mentioned by the Russian leader himself, nor the woman who introduced herself as the real mother – can reveal the truth.

Official sources are also not informative – there is not much information regarding Putin’s childhood and even those that are made public are poor, mostly specific details without more detailed stories regarding one or another period.

“I know more regarding my father’s family than my mother’s.” Such a sentence began in 2000. published V. Putin’s biography “First Person: A Surprisingly Open Self-Portrait of the President of Russia”, which was based on detailed interviews with him by three journalists.

In the German publication “Zeit” in 2015 was published a long story regarding how Putin came out with the claims regarding the alleged son in 1999 – when he rose to the highest level of politics – the attempts to investigate the story and even the flight that ended in the crash to the woman.

Screenshot from peakd.com/The legend of Vladimir Putin’s Jewish mother has been shaken by the story of another woman who claimed to be his real mother

But even this story did not prove that she really conceived the future president. Moreover, it is not mentioned that V. Putin’s mother – neither the one mentioned officially, nor the one who announced that she gave birth to him – was Jewish.

The alleged mother from Sakartvel is also mentioned in Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen’s book “Putin. A man without a face.” The author writes that the Putins had to survive the blockade of Leningrad. V.Putin Sr., who joined the army in the first days of the Soviet-German war, was seriously wounded. His broken legs caused him great pain throughout his life.

The couple’s only son lived at the time in an orphanage opened during the blockade, where he died soon following. The first born had died in infancy even before the war. M.Putina herself was also close to death. Therefore, the birth of the third child was like a miracle, which is probably why this fact is accompanied by more than one myth.

It is seriously said that little Vladimir was adopted, because the journalists who wrote the aforementioned biography might not find a single person who remembered him before he started going to school.

Screenshot from “X”/Internet users themselves found an explanation of how the alleged document in which Vladimir Putin’s mother was named as a Jew might have appeared

However, if any of these stories – regarding the adoption or birth in Sakartvel and the mother who lost her son – are true, the legend of the Jewish origin loses its meaning. Because, even if M. Šelomova was really Jewish, she might not pass the nationality to the boy – not her biological son – through her genes.

15min verdict: missing context. The story regarding the fact that V. Putin’s mother was Jewish, so he adopted her nationality according to tradition, has no basis. Spreading this legend on the Internet is based on his only request to change his passport, which indicated that she was Jewish next to the woman’s last name. The authenticity of this alleged document cannot be verified.

The publication was prepared in 15 minutes in partnership with Metait aims to stop the spread of misleading news on the social network. More regarding the program and its rules – here.