The two daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who have been shrouded in secrecy, have made a rare public appearance.
On the 8th, major foreign media outlets, including CNN, reported that Putin’s daughters, Maria Vorontsova (39) and Katerina Tikhonova (37), appeared as the speakers of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), which was held this week.
According to the report, the two are known to be daughters born to Putin and his former wife, Lyudmila. Putin married Lyudmila, a former flight attendant, in 1983 and had two daughters but had a divorce in 2013.
Concerning this, Putin has effectively ruled Russia for over 20 years, but the identities and whereabouts of his daughters were relatively concealed. He has been hesitant to speak openly about them.
Putin has stated that his two daughters work in science and education and that he has a grandchild, but he has never revealed their names.
Tikhonova, the younger daughter, is known to work in a field related to the Russian military. She gave a video lecture at SPIEF on the 6th. She discussed the role of the defense sector in strengthening Russia’s technological sovereignty.
Vorontsova, the older daughter who leads the state-supported genetics research institute, spoke on the 7th about the innovation of biodiversity.
According to independent Russian media, both have attended SPIEF in the past, but only Tikhonova had given a speech, and this is the first time both have appeared as speakers.
Meanwhile, there are suspicions that Putin has hidden assets through his daughters.
In January, the Anti-Corruption Foundation of Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition activist who passed away in prison last February, claimed that Vorontsova earned more than $10 million as a medical company employee between 2019 and 2022.
Vorontsova reportedly married a Dutch businessman, and the couple is said to have lived in a $3.3 million apartment in the Netherlands.
On the other hand, Tikhonova is said to have bought an eight-room villa in Biarritz, a French resort town, for millions of dollars when she married Russian tycoon Kirill Shamalov.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported on the 5th that this SPIEF has become a showcase for the second generation of high-ranking Kremlin officials.
Yevgeny Minchenko, a political scientist close to the Kremlin, analyzed “the rise of the princes—children of representatives of the political elite” in a report on the Russian power structure.
Maria Snegovaya, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), diagnosed that “a gradual transfer of power to the successor is taking place.”
