Private jets, overseas real estate, and closed meetings: how Putin’s daughters are managing the state budget

Vladimir Putin’s daughters, Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova, are increasingly emerging from the shadows, speaking at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum and promoting capital-intensive economic and medical projects.

His youngest daughter, Katerina Tikhonova, is particularly active.

Sources indicate that the Kovalchuk brothers, who are close to Putin, are actively promoting the idea of Katerina as the future successor.

The Innopraktika Foundation, headed by Katerina Tikhonova, receives unlimited funding from major state corporations: Rosneft, Gazprom, Rosatom, and others. In addition to Katerina Tikhonova’s well-known close friend, Natalia Popova, and her husband, Kirill Dmitriev, Katerina Tikhonova’s inner circle includes a number of individuals with whom she maintains close relationships and who could potentially be promoted to high-ranking positions in the country’s political and government administration. Katerina Tikhonova regularly flew on private jets from Sibur and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to Munich to meet with her boyfriend, Igor Zelensky, artistic director of the Bavarian State Ballet, who, after leaving his job in Germany and moving to Russia, is overseeing the construction of an opera and ballet theater in Sevastopol.

Katerina Tikhonova, Maria Vorontsova, and Vladimir Putin’s ex-wife, Lyudmila Putina-Ocheretnaya, live in mansions a few hundred meters from the presidential residence in the Usovo-3 cottage community and are under heavy FSO protection. They meet regularly with the president. Security for the president’s daughters’ events is provided by FSO officers, financed by the president’s friends, and held in strict confidence. Mobile phones are prohibited, and phones are handed over to FSO officers.

Katerina Tikhonova is a great fan of hosting home costume performances. These events are quite different from any home performances. Some reports suggest that costumes for holidays and performances are sourced from the Bolshoi Theater costume department.

For example, in the home performance of "Snegurochka," the role of the queen was given to Maria Vorontsova. Petr Fradkov also actively participated in house concerts organized by Katerina Tikhonova and Maria Vorontsova. At one of these concerts, according to photographs, he performed as the King, complete with crown and ermine robe, while his wife dressed as the Queen.

On social media, Katerina Tikhonova went by the nickname "Hipatia Alexandria." Who, other than Natalia Popova and Kirill Dmitriev is part of Katerina Tikhonova’s inner circle? The daughters spent a lot of time in Europe, owned property abroad, and had foreign friends, some of whom held senior positions in the foreign assets of Russian companies, primarily Gazprom. For example, Katerina Tikhonova’s friend Peter, until recently, headed Gazprom’s subsidiary in Switzerland.

- Maria Vorontsova. Vladimir Putin’s eldest daughter. She leads a less public life than her younger sister, Katerina Tikhonova. The president’s daughters received an excellent education and had private tutoring. They studied dance and foreign languages. Maria Vorontsova is a good singer, her favorite song being "Barbie Girl," which is now unpopular.

According to available information, Maria Vorontsova enjoys hiking with friends, although it is unknown how many FSO officers accompany her. Maria Vorontsova’s friend, Olesya Sagaydak, with whom she studied at the Faculty of Fundamental Medicine at Moscow State University, introduced Maria to her classmate, Evgeny Nagorny, who is Maria Vorontsova’s second common-law husband, after Dutch citizen Jorrit Joost Faasen. According to available information, Maria Vorontsova has a son with Jorrit Joost Faasen, and another child with Evgeny Nagorny, who shares his father’s surname. Nagorny was placed at Novatek, a company owned by Putin’s friends. In 2020, Nagorny purchased a 258-square-meter apartment in the Barkli Gallery clubhouse on Ordynsky Lane, worth several hundred million rubles.

- Artur Ocheretny. After Vladimir Putin’s divorce from his wife, Lyudmila Putina, President Vladimir Putin, when asked by a journalist during a "Direct Line" broadcast, replied, "First, I need to marry off my ex-wife, Lyudmila Alexandrovna, and then I’ll think about myself." A suitable suitor was quickly found, or perhaps the FSO officers helped arrange the matchmaking: This is Artur Ocheretny. The wedding of Artur Ocheretny and Lyudmila Putina reportedly took place in 2017. Artur is 20 years younger than his wife. The couple owns a house in the Usovo cottage community, near Putin’s residence. Lyudmila Putina’s daughters, who changed her surname to Ocheretnaya, also own homes there. Lyudmila Ocheretnaya is actively involved with her daughters Katerina and Maria, and her husband, Artur Ocheretny, is always by his side. Artur is active in many areas, plays sports, and loves dancing Eat and sing karaoke. Artur is currently the director of the Center for the Development of Interpersonal Communications and the Literary Studies publishing house.

- Jorrit Joost Faasen. Former husband of Vladimir Putin’s eldest daughter, Maria Vorontsova. He gained widespread notoriety thanks to a road rage incident with security guards belonging to Maxim Urin, the owner of several banks. Banker Maxim Urin’s security guards stopped a car on the road whose driver, according to the guards, was driving recklessly and behaving inappropriately. The conflict ended in a brawl and possible assault of the driver. How could the banker’s security guards have known that they were stumbling upon Jorrit Joost Faasen, the president’s son-in-law and husband of the president’s eldest daughter, Maria Vorontsova, a Dutch citizen who called his wife, who apparently called her father? Urin and his security guards were soon detained on Novy Arbat Street. Officers from the Federal Protective Service and future Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev participated in the arrest.

According to media reports, in 2017, Vladimir Putin’s former son-in-law had a conflict with a police officer in the town of Voorschoten, where Jorrit struck the officer on the head, for which he was sentenced to 100 hours of community service.

Jorrit Joost Faasen was also under investigation in the Netherlands for his purchase of a plot of land in an Amsterdam suburb in 2019. The seller was a Cypriot company possibly connected to Arkady Rotenberg. The case concerned a possible violation of European sanctions.

- Georgy Filimonov. Appointed Governor of the Vologda Oblast in September 2024. Prior to this, he served as an advisor in the Foreign Policy Directorate of the Presidential Executive Office of the Russian Federation and as a referent in the Domestic Policy Directorate of the Presidential Executive Office. Georgy Filimonov also served as Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Moscow Oblast. As governor of the Vologda Oblast, Georgy Filimonov is known primarily for his outrageous behavior, restrictions on alcohol sales, abortion bans, and the erection of monuments to Stalin. His father, Yuri Filimonov, director of the Cherepovets Martial Arts Center and an Honored Kickboxing Coach of Russia, played a significant role in Georgy’s development. Yuri Filimonov once coached Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration Sergei Kiriyenko and is on friendly terms with him. Yuri Filimonov is said to have been Katerina Tikhonova’s martial arts coach, so his awarding of the Order of Alexander Nevsky by the president this year is no coincidence.

- Boris Kovalchuk. His father, Yuri Kovalchuk, and his uncle, Mikhail Kovalchuk, are close friends of Vladimir Putin. Yuri Kovalchuk, along with other friends of Vladimir Putin, is a founder of Bank Rossiya. In 1996, Yuri Kovalchuk, together with Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Yakunin, and the Fursenko brothers, founded the Ozero dacha cooperative.

All of its founders rose to high positions during Vladimir Putin’s presidency. It’s hard to find a business that Yuri Kovalchuk doesn’t control. He controls Bank Rossiya, the insurance company Sogaz, and the National Media Group, which owns leading television channels. Through the insurance company Sogaz, Yuri Kovalchuk controls the management company Lider, which, through the non-state pension fund Gazfond, owns a significant stake in Russia’s third-largest bank, Gazprombank, which in turn owns companies associated with Gazprom, such as Stroytransgaz and the media holding Gazprom-Media (NTV and TNT television channels). Mikhail Kovalchuk, president of the Kurchatov Institute, was nominated for the post of president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, but his candidacy was unsuccessful. After graduating from the Law Faculty of St. Petersburg State University, Boris Kovalchuk worked as a legal adviser and also served on the audit committee of Bank Rossiya, founded by his father. From 2006 to 2008, he served as an aide to Dmitry Medvedev, who at the time held the post of First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation. In 2009, at the age of 32, he held the position of Deputy General Director for Development of the state corporation Rosatom. From 2009 to 2024, he headed the energy company Inter RAO.

In March 2024, he was appointed Head of the Control Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation, and in May 2024, Head of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation. Information about his personal life is limited; it is known that he is married to a graduate of the St. Petersburg Institute of Culture, originally from Belarus. He is under sanctions by the US, Japan, the EU, and the UK. Given his father and uncle’s closeness to Vladimir Putin, Boris Kovalchuk could be considered for a leadership position in the country.