Vladimir Putin reportedly grooming daughter Katerina Tikhonova to take over Russia in 2024
If there is one aspect of Vladimir Putin's private life that has been completely private, it is his children. His daughters have always been hidden from the Russian public. However, recently, they have been making appearances and stepping into the limelight.
Maria, 36, and Katerina, 35, are his alleged daughters from his 30-year marriage to now ex-wife Lyudmila Putina. His daughters had never been acknowledged as the potential heirs of the Russian leader.
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However, reportedly now it seems like Putin is slowly but surely grooming his younger daughter Katerina in hopes that she will be the eventual successor two years from now, in 2024. A Putin biographer, Natalia Gevorkyan, who wrote for Radio Svoboda said, "Trying to run a woman through an election campaign in Russia is quite an interesting and modern political experiment." She added, “Putin does not have a (male) heir - at least officially. But Katerina has already entered the public space with several huge and costly projects."
The biographer said, "In 2024, Katerina will be 38. In theory, she can take part in the presidential elections and provide a calm time in old age for her father and his closest friends."
Putin's elder daughter Maria was born in Leningrad, now known as St Petersburg, which is her father's home city in 1985. Katerina was born in Germany where the family lived as Putin was in the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (KGB). The sisters attended a German-language school after the family moved to Moscow in 1996. However, when four years later Putin became acting president, they were homeschooled.
Later, they studied at St Petersburg University under false identities. Elder daughter Maria is now a pediatric endocrinologist and one of the top experts on dwarfism. She is married to a Dutch businessman Jorrit Faassen and they have a child together. This makes Putin a grandfather.
On the other hand, her sister Katerina is renowned for her successful career as an acrobatic Rock n Roll dancer. She is also a member of the Russian Council for Development of Physical Culture and Mass Sports. Previously, she was married to Kirill Shamalov who is the son of one of the co-owners of Russia's largest banks.
Mother Lyudmila Putina admitted that the Russian leader 'spoils' his girls. She said, "Not all fathers are as loving with their children as he is. He has always spoiled them, while I was the one who had to disciple them.”