Putin explains why he keeps his children and grandchildren under the radar
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about his children and grandchildren during the Q&A show “Direct Line with Vladimir Putin”, explaining why he hides information about them.
"My daughters live in Russia, in Moscow. I have grandsons. They live normal lives. My daughters are engaged in science and education, and I do not want them to grow up as princes of blood; I want them to grow up as normal people. This requires regular communication in children's groups. It's worth it to me just to say: with age, name - they will be immediately identified; they will not be left alone, and it will damage the development of the child. Therefore, everything is fine for me, and I ask that you understand me correctly. My second grandson was born recently", he said.
Putin previously talked about his grandchildren in an interview with American director Oliver Stone. Stone asked in his conversation with the Russian President as to whether Putin likes his grandsons. Putin replied that he loves them, but he does not have enough time to play with them.
The day before, the Investigations Management Center (IMC) published a video that allegedly includes Putin's granddaughter. The Chief Editor of the IMC, Andrei Konyakhin, explained that this video was taken from the VKontakte account of Maria Vorontsova, presumably the eldest daughter of Putin, who now lives in Holland under a different name. Her child, who is now five years old, appears in the video, which was filmed in a house in Novo-Ogaryovo in 2013, according to the IMC.
In an investigation by The New Times, it was noted that Maria was married to Dutch businessman Jorrit Faassen. She has changed her name four times. In 2011, she went under the name Vorontsova, under which she graduated from the Faculty of Fundamental Medicine of Moscow State University, and entered the graduate school of the Endocrinology Research Center of the Russian Ministry of Health.
Bloomberg and Reuters have written that the youngest daughter of Putin, Ekaterina Tikhonova, runs the fund Innopraktika, which is engaged in a project to create a scientific hub at Moscow State University.