Who are Putin's daughters? Latest round of sanctions raises questions

The latest round of U.S. sanctions laid against Russia has cast a spotlight on President Vladimir Putin’s family—one that has long been shrouded in secrecy.

Putin’s adult daughters, 36-year-old Mariya Putina and 35-year-old Katerina Tikhonova, were named in the latest sanctions alongside Russian government officials and their family members Wednesday.

In targeting Putin’s daughters, the U.S. hopes to freeze any assets the Russian president may be hiding with them overseas. Though it is unclear what assets they could be holding, a U.S. government official tells CNN the practice was common among the Russian elite.

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But little is known about Putin’s daughters, whom he rarely talks about.

In fact, their identities have never been confirmed by Putin or the Kremlin and their existence has sparked much speculation among the Russian and international communities. Here’s what we know:

FAMILY BACKGROUND

Officially, Putin has two children, Mariya and Katerina, from Putin’s marriage to Lyudmila Putina, a former Aeroflot steward whom he divorced in 2013.

In 2015, Putin, who has rarely spoken publicly about his daughters, shared some insight into their lives while shutting down speculation that they had fled the country.

Though he never shared their names or job titles, citing security concerns, he said at the time they had stayed clear of business and politics.

“They live in Russia ... They have never been educated anywhere except Russia. I am proud of them, they continue to study and are working. My daughters speak three European languages fluently,” he said at the annual press conference.

“They have never been ‘star’ children, they have never got pleasure from the spotlight being directed on them. They just live their own lives.”

According to Reuters, Mariya was born in Leningrad, Russia in 1985, and Katerina was born in Germany in 1986 during her father's time in the KGB. Katerina uses her grandmother’s surname Tikhonova. Mariya has also been identified using the surname Vorontsova.

Tikhonova and Putina have never confirmed publicly that the Russian leader is their father. However, several investigations have linked the women to their father.

KATERINA TIKHONOVA

Tikhonova studied at Saint Petersburg State University and Moscow State University and has a master’s degree in physics and mathematics. Today, she is described as a “tech executive whose work supports the GoR [Russian government] and defence industry,” according to the U.S. government.

In 2014, she and her dance partner came in fifth in the world championships of acrobatic rock’n’roll dancing.

Because Tikhonova and her sister were never identified in photographs with their father, it was actually footage from the competition compared with pictures from the website of Moscow State University that first helped to confirm her identity in 2015.

Tikhonova married Kirill Shamalov, the younger son of Nikolai Shamalov, a close confidant of Putin’s and co-owner of Rossiya Bank, which the U.S. has described as “the personal bank” of top Kremlin officials.

In 2015, Reuters estimated that Kirill and Tikhonova would have corporate holdings worth about $2 billion, including a seaside villa in Biarritz, France, estimated to be worth about $3.7 million.

Tikhonova worked in various roles at Moscow State University and, in 2020, was appointed the head of a new artificial intelligence and intelligent systems institute at the university.

MARIYA PUTINA

Less is known about Putin’s eldest daughter, a pediatric endocrinologist, who is said to be studying the effects of hormones on the body. According to the U.S. government, Putina "leads state-funded programs that have received billions of dollars from the Kremlin toward genetics research and are personally overseen by Putin.”

Putina studied biology at Saint Petersburg State University and medicine at Moscow State University. According to Reuters, she co-authored a book about idiopathic stunting in children in 2015.

Putina married Dutch businessman Jorrit Faassen in 2013 and has also been identified under her married name.