Since Vladimir Putin began cementing his grip on Russia in the 1990s, many of his friends have grown famously rich.
Since Vladimir Putin began cementing his grip on Russia in the 1990s, many of his friends have grown famously rich.
Not so the President himself, say his supporters, who insist Mr Putin is above the money grab that has marked his reign. His public financial disclosures depict a man of modest means. In April, Mr Putin declared an income for 2014 of 7.65 million rubles ($119,000). He listed the ownership of two modest apartments and a share in a car parking garage.
His daughter Katerina is doing considerably better, supported by some of the Russian President’s wealthy friends, a Reuters examination shows.
After unconfirmed media speculation about Katerina’s identity, a senior Russian figure told Reuters that she uses the surname Tikhonova. Andrey Akimov, deputy chairman of Russian lender Gazprombank, said he had met Katerina when she was little and more recently, and that Tikhonova was Mr Putin’s daughter.
Reuters has also learned that earlier in 2015 Katerina, 29, described herself as the “spouse” of Kirill Shamalov, son of Nikolai Shamalov, a longtime friend of the President. Shamalov senior is a shareholder in Bank Rossiya, which US officials have described as the personal bank of the Russian elite.
As husband and wife, Kirill and Katerina would have corporate holdings worth about $2 billion, according to estimates provided to Reuters by financial analysts.
That wealth stems mainly from a large publicly disclosed stake in a major gas and petrochemical company that Kirill acquired from Gennady Timchenko, another long-time friend of Mr Putin.
Also among the young couple’s holdings is a seaside villa in Biarritz, France, estimated to be worth about $3.7 million. That asset, too, was acquired by Kirill from Timchenko, a commodities trader who has known the President since at least the 1990s.
Katerina is also thriving in academia and running publicly funded projects at the Moscow State University. A Reuters examination of public documents shows that the President’s younger daughter has signed contracts worth several million dollars from state-owned organisations for work at the university to be carried out by organisations she directs. There is no indication she has made any personal financial gain from this work.
She holds a senior position at the university, and helps direct a $1.7 billion plan to expand its campus. Katerina’s official advisers at Moscow State University include five members of Mr Putin’s inner circle — including two former KGB officers who knew her when she was a toddler. They served with her father in the 1980s when he was deployed to Dresden, East Germany.
Mr Putin’s elder daughter, Maria, is linked to Moscow State University as well. She is a graduate of the school’s fundamental medicine department and is forging a career in endocrinology, according to publicly available documents.
Katerina, Maria and Kirill Shamalov all declined to comment for this article. Asked about the Biarritz home, a spokesman for Timchenko said he would not comment on personal matters.
The stock acquisitions, state business deals, French property and oligarch connections offer a rare glimpse into the lives of Mr Putin’s children. The President has been very protective of his private life and his daughters, who seldom appear in the media. The transactions also provide insight into the family finances of Russia’s most powerful man and the elite that has formed around him.
Katerina and Kirill, 33, are among a new generation of Russians enjoying a rapid rise in the wake of their well-connected parents. The phenomenon bears similarities to the “princelings” of China — the children and grandchildren of Communist Party leaders who have gone on to gain positions of power and amass great wealth.
Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a sociologist and former member of Mr Putin’s United Russia political party, told Reuters that a “new aristocracy” was emerging in politics and state companies, with a second generation inheriting the status of the current circle around Mr Putin. “Many in society think they haven’t worked for it, and they question who these people really are,” she said.
Among other children of the Mr Putin circle with growing influence are:
Boris Kovalchuk, son of Yuri Kovalchuk, the largest shareholder of Bank Rossiya and a close Putin associate; Gleb Frank, son of former transport minister Sergei Frank and son-in-law of commodity billionaire Timchenko; Igor Rotenberg, son of the billionaire Arkady Rotenberg, Putin’s former judo partner; Sergei S. Ivanov, son of Kremlin Chief of Staff Sergei B. Ivanov.
In an interview with Reuters, Alexei Navalny, a Russian Opposition leader, described what he called a “neo-feudal system” that threatens to dominate state offices and big business.
“Today in Russia, it is absolutely normal that the boards of directors at state banks are headed by children of security service officials, who aren’t even 30 years old when they are appointed,” he said.
“It is more than just a dynastic succession. Children don’t just inherit their parents’ posts, but also the right to choose any other post they fancy. The danger is that very soon all key resources will end up in the hands of five to seven families.”
Reuters asked the Kremlin whether Katerina Tikhonova was the daughter of Mr Putin and whether she is married to Kirill Shamalov, and other questions. Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the Russian Federation, replied: “We have no information whatsoever about the personal life, family connection, marital status, academic activities, involvement in particular projects and family tree of Ms Tikhonova, or about other individuals mentioned in your letter.
“In recent years there has been an enormous quantity of gossip on the subject of the family ties of V. Putin, and, in particular, his daughters. The proportion of accurate information in all these publications is laughably small.”
Katerina has largely escaped public attention since her father became President in 2000.
In 2011, Mr Putin told Russian television that Katerina had read Oriental studies, specialising in Japanese and history, at St. Petersburg University.
Little else was known about her adult life until a Russian blogger, Oleg Kashin, reported in January that the President’s younger daughter was active at Moscow State University and had taken the surname Tikhonova, derived from the name of her grandmother, Yekaterina Tikhonovna Shkrebneva.
As well as Gazprombank’s Akimov, two senior academic sources — one at Moscow State University and one scientist with close contacts there — also confirmed to Reuters that Tikhonova is Mr Putin’s daughter.
She has made rapid progress since her Oriental studies as an undergraduate.
According to the website of Moscow State University, she is attached to the mechanics and mathematics faculty. Under the name Tikhonova, she is listed as an author, along with other academics, of a chapter in a math text book and at least six scientific papers since 2011.
The papers include studies on medicines and space travel; one is listed as a study of how the human body reacts to zero gravity.
Most of the papers were co-authored with the university rector, Viktor Sadovnichy. He did not respond directly to requests for comment, but the university issued a statement.
It said Tikhonova had proved to be a “talented researcher” who had “reported results of her research at scientific seminars and conferences many times”.
The statement added: “We do not have information about the private life of employees.”
