US Treasury Department confirms that Yekaterina Tikhonova is Putin's daughter
The United States Department of the Treasury confirmed that Katerina Tikhonova is a daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The information was provided as a part of an explanatory note about Tikhonova’s husband Kirill Shamalov who was included in the new sanctions list.
"Shamalov married Putin’s daughter, Katerina Tikhonova in February 2013 and his fortunes drastically improved following the marriage. Within 18 months, he acquired a large portion of shares of Sibur, a Russia-based company involved in oil and gas exploration, production, processing, and refining," the note said.
The first reports indicating that Tikhonova as Putin daughter appeared in 2015 but the first public confirmation of her parentage was made only after almost three years. Putin himself refuses to answer journalists' questions about his daughters. Putin has two publicly acknowledged children: Maria, who was born in 1985 in St. Petersburg, and Yekaterina, born in 1986 in Dresden.