The sanctions of the western powers against Vladimir Putin and his environment brought to light the private life of the Russian president, kept under strict opacity until now.
The United States and the European Union (EU) announced sanctions against the two adult daughters of Putinfruit of his first marriage with Liudmila Putin. But now the pressure’s on Alina Kabaevaa former gymnast whom some media and opponents point to as a lover of Putinsomething that was never confirmed by the Kremlin.
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Putin He is very discreet with his private life. State media often shows him traveling or working alone, too busy serving the country to enjoy leisure.
He did appear in public with Liudimila at the interval of a ballet in Moscow in 2013the occasion to announce a separation that would be consummated a year later.
According to Russian media, The couple’s two daughters are named Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova, but Putin never spoke directly about them.
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“My children are fine. They are in Moscow (…). In his private life and in his professional life everything is going well. I am proud of them”he declared in 2012, in one of the few public comments on his personal sphere.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov declined to comment on the new sanctions against Maria and Katerina.
But the long public absences of his mother, Liudmilaand his sorrowful air in his appearances, raised much speculation about the private life of the Kremlin leader.
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In 2008, a tabloid, Moskovsky Korrespondent, claimed that Putin wanted to marry Alina Kabaeva. Furious, the Russian president would have invited journalists to keep their “morbid” curiosity away from his private life.
The newspaper, owned by businessman Alexander Lebedev (whose son, Eugeni, is a media figure in Britain), He posted a detailed apology before closing the post.
But Putin and Kabaeva’s relationship is still on the minds of Russians and dissident Alexei Navalny published an investigation into her shortly before her arrest, in January 2021.
“closest circle”
Navalny claimed then that Kabaeva enjoyed a network of luxury properties in Russia and an important remuneration as an employee of the board of directors of the public group National Media Group (NMG), where she was appointed by the oligarch Yuri Kovalshuk, a man close to Putin and also subject to the current sanctions.
“There is no doubt that Alina Maratovna Kabaeva danced better than anyone with a ball and a bow, but without Putin she has no competence to manage audiovisual companies and newspapers,” Navalny said.
Information from social networks currently places her in Switzerland, where a petition with some 75,000 signatures demands that sanctions be applied.
“Why, given the volume of sanctions against Russia, is she still being housed with her family when Putin destroys the lives of millions of people?”, claims the text of this campaign.
The Swiss federal government, quoted by RTS television, said it had investigated the matter but found “no evidence that this person is in Switzerland.”
Georgy Alburov, an investigator for Navalny’s anti-corruption fund, finds it inconceivable that Kabaeva would avoid sanctions.
“She is part of the closest circle of Putinis a member of her family who took advantage of this situation” and her role in an official media makes her an “important Russian propagandist”, she said.
Russian opponents also claim that Putin’s relationship with Kabaeva is not exclusive. In November 2020, the investigative outlet Proekt announced that a woman named Svetlana Krivonogikh had obtained shares in Rossia bank thanks to Yuri Kovalshuk.
In 2003, Krivonogikh gave birth to a girl with the patronymic (proper name that in Russia designates paternal descent) Vladimir. The Kremlin claimed that the Proekt article lacks “serious elements.”
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