Huge threat facing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s daughters

As Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine rages on, serious consequences could be looming for the Russian President’s family.

The brutal invasion of Ukraine shows no sign of ending – and it could spark major ramifications for Vladimir Putin’s mysterious daughters.

According to Bloomberg, the European Union is now weighing up whether to come after the Russian President’s adult children, Katerina and Maria, in the form of economic sanctions.

The potential move comes after disturbing details emerged this week of Ukrainian civilians being slaughtered by Russian troops.

The proposal is part of a plan to sanction a string of high-profile Russian figures, and must be approved by all 27 members of the union before it can come to pass.

While the plan to target Mr Putin’s immediate family would be considered to be mostly symbolic, given it is not known whether they have significant assets outside of their homeland, the possible measure is intentionally planned to make the leader sit up and take notice, given how protective he has always been of his family’s privacy.

In fact, his daughters’ names have never been officially released, and their identities have long been shrouded in secrecy.

Who are Putin’s daughters?

Vladimir Putin has two adult daughters from his first marriage to former flight attendant Lyudmila Shkrebneva, which ended in 2013.

The eldest, Maria, is believed to have been born in Leningrad (now called St Petersburg) in 1985, with sister Katerina arriving the following year while the family was living in Germany.

However, Mr Putin has never mentioned their names publicly, and rarely comments on his family life at all.

But while Katerina has given media interviews in the past — and made headlines for her apparent passion for the quirky sport of Acrobatic Rock ‘n’ Roll — Maria’s life has long been kept under wraps.

Maria Vorontsova reportedly split with her Dutch husband recently. Picture: Rossia 24/YouTube

However, the blonde 36-year-old, who has been dubbed Putin’s “secret daughter” by the press, dropped some surprising clues about herself during an interview with state-owned TV channel Russia 1 in 2019.

During the interview it was revealed she is a co-owner and top executive at Nomeko, a new, $A894 million medical firm focused on cancer research.

Located near St Petersburg, Nomeko is said to be the biggest private investment project in healthcare in the country.

According to the BBC, Ms Vorontsova reportedly has a 20 per cent stake along with four other owners.

It is designed to hold 20,000 patients and will be able to perform 10,000 operations annually.

The Sun previously reported Ms Vorontsova — apparently nicknamed Masha — lives in a luxury penthouse in the Russian capital of Moscow, near the American embassy.

She is believed to be multilingual, and fluent in English, Dutch, Russian and French and is a children’s endocrinologist and research assistant.

She graduated with a medical degree from the Faculty of Fundamental Medicine at Moscow State University in 2011, according to the Daily Mail, and completed an internship at the Institute of Paediatric Endocrinology at the FSBI Endocrinological Research Center — part of the Ministry of Health — in 2014.

Maria could be in the EU’s firing line.

Ms Vorontsova later completed a PhD with postgraduate research into dwarfism.

Earlier this year, it was reported that her marriage to wealthy Dutch businessman Jorrit Faassen – with whom she shares at least one child – had collapsed.

In the wake of her father’s invasion of Ukraine, exiled Russian investigative journalist Sergey Kanev said that Mr Putin “did a rotten job for his elder daughter” by triggering massive Western sanctions.

“She has a big share in the mega-project for the construction of a super modern medical centre near St Petersburg,” he claimed recently.

“The plans were to attract patients from Europe and rich sheiks from the Persian Gulf countries.

“And now, after the attack on Ukraine, what kind of Europeans and sheiks will come?”

Meanwhile, just like her older sister, Katerina Tikhonova also spent most of her life out of the public eye — until a few years ago.

Katerina is an acrobatic rock’n’roll enthusiast.

She was first identified by Reuters in 2015, as an active participant in a sport known as “acrobatic rock’n’roll” — a mix of gymnastics and dance.

Ms Tikhonova, 35, who allegedly uses her maternal grandmother’s last name in a bid to remain anonymous, was also reported as heading a massive expansion of Moscow State University in 2015.

She married Russian billionaire Kirill Shamalov in 2013, although the pair have allegedly since split, and in 2018 Ms Tikhonova made her television debut on Russia 1.

Katerina Tikhonova, deputy director at the mathematical research of complex systems at Moscow State University, spoke at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in 2021. Picture: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Identified as the “deputy director of the institute for mathematical research of complex systems at Moscow’s State University”, Ms Tikhonova spoke with reporters about advancements in technology aimed at controlling electrical impulses in the brain, BBC Monitoring reported.

Secret family

In a 2015 press conference, Mr Putin stunned those present by briefly speaking about his daughters.

While he only uttered a few sentences about his family, it was one of the most revealing insights that has ever been made publicly.

“They live in Russia and have never lived anywhere other than Russia permanently,’ he said, according to Whimn.

“They studied only at Russian universities. I am proud of them. They continue to study and work.

“My daughters speak three European languages fluently. One of them can even speak one or two Oriental languages. They are making their first steps and are successful.”

Vladimir Putin has kept his daughters under wraps.

Then, in 2017, Reuters reported Mr Putin as saying he wanted his grandchildren to have a normal childhood.

“My daughters are involved in science and in education. They don’t interfere in anything, including politics. They live normally,” he said.

“The thing is I don’t want them to grow up like princes,” he said of his grandchildren.

“I want them to be normal people. And for that they need ordinary, normal communication with other children.

“They would be immediately identified and not left in peace. It would damage the children’s development. I ask you to understand me and to treat this position with understanding.”

Putin’s ‘love child’

In early March, Mr Putin’s third known daughter – so-called “love child” Luiza Rozova, 18 – made headlines after deleting her Instagram account after being aggressively trolled in the wake of the Ukraine invasion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Ukrainian invasion could cause headaches for his daughters. Picture: Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP

Luiza is the daughter of cleaner-turned-multi-millionaire Svetlana Krivonogikh, 45, now a part-owner of a major Russian bank, one of the country’s wealthiest women.

Svetlana — who owns a multimillion-dollar property in Monaco — has not commented on claims that her daughter was fathered by the Kremlin strongman, and nor has Luiza, also known as Elizaveta, although she told Russian GQ that she “probably” looks “similar” to a young Putin.