– I never discuss my family with anyone, Putin said in 2015 during one of his marathon press conferences. But he actually said something more. The two daughters live in Russia and have studied only here. They speak three languages fluently and Putin is a proud father. But he never mentions their names, allegedly to protect the family. Vladimir Putin was photographed alone during the Orthodox Christmas Mass in the Annunciation Cathedral in the Kremlin on January 6. Photo: Kremlin.ru/Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik On Russian Christmas Eve, January 6, Vladimir Putin stood sullenly alone in one of the Kremlin’s churches and stared at the icons. None of his relatives were around. Is it because no one wants to be with him, people speculate. Or at least not want to appear with him? Putin looked very pensive during the Christmas mass. Photo: Kremlin.ru/Sputnik / Mikhail Klimentjev We know little about the daughters, because Russian journalists are also curious. The eldest, Maria Vorontsova, is 37 years old and an endocrinologist, that is, a specialist in hormonal disorders. The youngest, Katerina Tikhonova, is 35 and best known as a former world-class acrobatic rock’n’roll dancer. But she also heads an institute for artificial intelligence at Moscow University. Putin has barely mentioned that he has grandchildren, and the daughters probably have one child each. Katerina Tikhonova and Dmitry Alekseev at the World Championship of Acrobatic Rock’n Roll in Moscow in October 2016 Photo: Yevgenij Bijatov / RIA Novosti Toddler father? With so much secrecy, there are bound to be rumors. Because Putin was divorced from his daughters’ mother in 2013. He is also good friends with a former Olympic champion in rhythmic gymnastics, Alina Kabajeva. The Swiss newspaper Sonntags Zeitung wrote last year that Kabajeva gave birth to two sons, both of whom are Putin’s children, in 2015 and 2019. One is said to have been born in Switzerland, the other in Moscow. But both are said to have been received by a Russian-born gynecologist who has known Putin since his teenage years in St. Petersburg. Among those echoing these rumors is Russian dig site The Insider, which has partnered with dig journalists at The Bellingcat, the BBC and Der Spiegel on major revelations. If the rumors are true, the Russian president is the father of two boys aged around 4 and 8. Alina Kabajeva is welcomed by President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin after her Olympic victory in rhythmic gymnastics in Athens. Photo: Reuters/ITAR-Tass For the record, the Kremlin’s press spokesman denied in 2015 that Putin had fathered a son. But Kabajeva is back from her exile in Switzerland, and investigative journalists in the group Projekt have confirmed that she and the president have houses close to each other in a national park in Valdai, midway between Moscow and St. Petersburg. So one might ask, what difference does it make how many children he has? Declining population It’s interesting because people, myself included, would like to understand as much as possible about who this authoritarian president is – deep down. Does he stand there and almost urge Russia’s women to give birth to more children, while he does not want to show off his own? Whether there are now two, four or even more, as some believe. Vladimir Putin with his daughters when they were very young. Photo: UNKNOWN In the national security strategy from July 2021, Putin lists the most important priorities. Priority number one is “to save the Russian people”. Anything that can “increase birth rates” tops the list of tasks to improve national security. There were over half a million fewer Russians in 2022, and the biggest problem is that too few are being born. Propaganda paintings I have to make a small digression here. Quite by chance one Sunday I ended up in the middle of a painting exhibition entitled “The Family – Russia’s Soul”. On the outskirts of Moscow is Tsarytsina Park with a palace ordered to be built by Empress Catherine the Great in 1775. The palace was never finished during her lifetime, in fact not until 2007. When I worked here in the 1990s the houses were just ruins, now they are restored as a memory of the Russian Empire. But then, the exhibition: One painting in particular caught my attention. A priest with seven children and a wife around him, from 2023. Because yes, Russian priests can have a wife and children if they are ordained after having a family. But not vice versa. Ilja Ovtsharenko: The priest’s family, 2023. Photo: Gro Holm / news And now the church is at the forefront of the fight against all queer and other non-traditional relationships. Queers cannot, of course, adopt children or allow themselves to be artificially inseminated here in Russia. Another painting, “Idyll”, shows a family by a river in front of a newly built log house in the countryside. Certainly there are farmers in Russia. But there were strikingly few paintings from urban areas and featuring the type of young, hip adults I see around me every day in Moscow. Like right-wing populists in many countries, the church and Putin are looking backwards to find the answers to what the future should look like. Andrej Darejev: Idyll (newer, but year not known) Photo: Gro Holm / news An order for many children There are many orders in Russia. One of them is called “Parents’ honour” and is given to parents with seven or more children. Via video link, the president was able to show his love for such selected families with children on Children’s Day on 1 June. – Support for mothers, children and extended families with many children, that is the state’s most important task, said Father Putin. President Putin in video conference with families who have more than 7 children on June 1. Photo: Kremlin.ru And support, they get that. Among other things, so-called “mother capital”. That is, one-off payments upon birth. NOK 75,000 for the first child, then around NOK 24,000 for the second child and even less for the third – if the family has taken the full package for the first children. Child benefit is not as generous. It is also needs-tested. Modern with three children According to the World Bank, Russian women give birth to an average of 1.5 children. 2.1 children per woman are needed for the population not to decline under normal conditions. Last year, the population in Russia decreased by 550,000, the year before by over 900,000. This is the kind of thing that scares the leadership in the Kremlin. This calculation has probably not taken into account that many hundreds of thousands, perhaps up to a million, have left the country to avoid that they or their lovers are sent to Ukraine. Viktoria and her two children in Gorky Park in central Moscow. She expects to have at least one more child. Photo: Gro Holm / news But Putin can take comfort in the fact that among the middle class in Moscow it is fashionable to have three children. That’s what Victoria, aged 37, tells us when we meet at the carousel in Gorkijparken. Now she has two children, but her husband would like to have five. All the friends have three, she claims. And they must be brought up in traditional values. The most important thing is to be well behaved and respect your parents. And God. She did not mention the president, but that goes without saying.
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The family at the center, just not Putin’s own – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
