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Vladimir Putin: Biography, Family Tree & The Secret Lives of His Daughters

Meta Title: Vladimir Putin Family Tree, Biography & Daughters | Maria Vorontsova & Katerina Tikhonova Meta Description: Discover the complete verified family tree of Vladimir Putin — President of Russia. His parents, grandparents, ex-wife Lyudmila, secret daughters Maria Vorontsova & Katerina Tikhonova, grandchildren & more. Focus Keyword: Vladimir Putin family tree Secondary Keywords: Putin daughters, Maria Vorontsova, Katerina Tikhonova, Putin biography, Lyudmila Putin, Putin parents, Russia President family, Putin grandchildren, Putin family secrets


Who Is Vladimir Putin?

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is the current President of the Russian Federation, holding the office since 7 May 2012. He was Prime Minister from 1999 to 2000, and President from 2000 to 2008. Geni He is one of the most powerful and secretive world leaders in modern history — and nowhere is that secrecy more apparent than in the story of his own family.


Quick Bio Facts

Detail Information
Full Name Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin
Date of Birth 7 October 1952
Birthplace Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), Russia
Nationality Russian
Profession Politician, Former KGB Intelligence Officer
Ex-Wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva (married 1983, divorced 2014)
Daughters Maria Vorontsova (b. 1985), Katerina Tikhonova (b. 1986)
Religion Russian Orthodox Christian

Putin's Family Tree — Roots & Origins

Great-Grandfather: Spiridon Putin (1879–1965)

Putin's paternal grandfather, Spiridon Ivanovich Putin, was employed at Vladimir Lenin's dacha at Gorki as a chef, and after Lenin's death in 1924, he continued to work for Lenin's wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya. He would later work for Joseph Stalin when the Soviet leader visited one of his dachas in the Moscow region. Geni This extraordinary detail — that Putin's great-grandfather cooked personally for both Lenin and Stalin — is one of the most remarkable family backstories of any living world leader.

Father: Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin (1911–1999)

Putin's father was a conscript in the Soviet Navy, serving in the submarine fleet in the early 1930s. During the early stage of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, his father served in the destruction battalion of the NKVD. Later, he was transferred to the regular army and was severely wounded in 1942. Wikipedia He survived the war and went on to raise his surviving son Vladimir in Leningrad.

Mother: Maria Ivanovna Putina, née Shelomova (1911–1998)

Putin's mother was a factory worker. Wikipedia She endured the brutal Siege of Leningrad during World War II, surviving unimaginable hardship. Putin's maternal grandmother was killed by the German occupiers of the Tver region in 1941, and his maternal uncles disappeared on the Eastern Front during World War II. Wikipedia

Brothers: Viktor & Albert Putin — Both Deceased

Putin was born on 7 October 1952 in Leningrad, the youngest of three children. His birth was preceded by the deaths of two brothers: Albert, born in the 1930s, died in infancy, and Viktor, born in 1940, died of diphtheria and starvation in 1942 during the Siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany's forces in World War II. Wikipedia Putin grew up as an only child, shaped profoundly by the weight of this family tragedy.


Putin's Marriage — Lyudmila Shkrebneva

Lyudmila Shkrebneva was an air stewardess for Aeroflot — the largest Russian airline — when she began dating Putin in the late 1970s. The couple initially met for a double date at a theater, and Shkrebneva admitted that she "didn't think much" of Putin and described him as poorly dressed. Fortune

In 1983, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin married Lyudmila Alexandrovna Shkrebneva. In 1985, a daughter, Maria, was born in this family, and in 1986 they had a second daughter, Katerina — both were named after their grandmothers. Wikipedia The couple divorced in 2014 after more than three decades of marriage.


Putin's Daughters — The World's Most Secretive Children

For decades, Putin refused to publicly acknowledge even the names of his daughters. Putin has refused to publicly acknowledge the names of his children, but the US Treasury Department identified the daughters being sanctioned as Maria Vladimirovna Vorontsova and Katerina Vladimirovna Tikhonova. NPR

In a rare 2017 interview, Putin said: "They're not involved in politics, they're not involved in any big business." OCCRP Yet the facts tell a very different story.


Daughter 1: Maria Vorontsova (née Putina) — b. 28 April 1985

Maria Vladimirovna Vorontsova was born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), the elder daughter of Vladimir Putin and Lyudmila Putina. She attended German school at Dresden, East Germany, while her family lived there in the late 1980s. Wikipedia

Vorontsova graduated from Moscow State University's Department of Fundamental Medicine in 2011 with a medical degree. Until 2014, she did her residency at a pediatric endocrinology research center under the Ministry of Health. OCCRP

Vorontsova is credited to be Putin's advisor in genetic engineering, especially in the usage of CRISPR. Wikipedia On 6 April 2022, the United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned Vorontsova, stating that she "leads state-funded programs that have received billions of dollars from the Kremlin toward genetics research and are personally overseen by Putin." She is also sanctioned by the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan and New Zealand. Wikipedia

On her personal life, Vorontsova married Dutch businessman Jorrit Faassen in summer 2008 in Wassenaar in the Netherlands. They have a son, born August 2012. In 2022, it was reported that they are no longer married. Wikipedia


Daughter 2: Katerina Tikhonova (née Putina) — b. 31 August 1986

Katerina Vladimirovna Tikhonova was born in Dresden, East Germany, the younger of two daughters of Vladimir Putin and Lyudmila Putina. She dropped the Putin surname and took the patronymic name of her maternal grandmother, Yekaterina Tikhonovna Shkrebneva, as her surname. Wikipedia

Tikhonova heads the Innopraktika company, which unites two initiatives of Moscow State University: the National Intellectual Development Foundation and the National Intellectual Reserve Centre. She is also deputy director of the Institute for Mathematical Research of Complex Systems at Moscow State University. Wikipedia

Before her tech career, Katerina had a remarkable athletic life. She was fond of acrobatic rock 'n' roll — a rare, non-Olympic sport. She and partner Ivan Klimov came in fifth place at a 2013 world championship event in Switzerland. In 2014, at the Russian Championship, the pair took second place. OCCRP

In 2013, Tikhonova married businessman Kirill Shamalov, the son of Nikolay Shamalov, a co-owner of Rossiya Bank and a longtime friend of Putin. At the time, the couple was estimated to hold assets worth around $2 billion. Wikipedia

On 6 April 2022, because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Tikhonova was sanctioned by the United States. The US Treasury stated she is "a tech executive whose work supports the government of Russia and defense industry." The UK and the European Union also imposed sanctions on Tikhonova on 8 April. Wikipedia


Childhood & Early Years — Both Daughters

They studied at the St. Petersburg private gymnasium Petershule with in-depth study of the German language, then for two years at the German School Moscow. Since 2000, for safety reasons, Putin's daughters completely switched to homeschooling. It is known that they take fitness and wushu classes, and that they are fluent in English, German, and French, while Maria also speaks Dutch. Wikipedia


Key Milestones Timeline

Year Milestone
1879 Great-grandfather Spiridon Putin born — later became cook to Lenin & Stalin
1952 Vladimir Putin born on 7 October in Leningrad
1975 Joins the KGB — begins intelligence career
1983 Marries Lyudmila Shkrebneva
1985 Daughter Maria born in Leningrad
1986 Daughter Katerina born in Dresden, East Germany
1999 Appointed Prime Minister of Russia
2000 Elected President of Russia for the first time
2008 Maria marries Dutch businessman Jorrit Faassen
2012 Putin's first grandchild (Maria's son) born
2013 Katerina marries Kirill Shamalov; Putin and Lyudmila publicly announce divorce
2014 Official divorce from Lyudmila finalised
Apr 2022 Both daughters sanctioned by USA, EU, UK, Japan and New Zealand
2025 Both daughters increasingly visible at Russian elite events

Why Did Both Daughters Change Their Surnames?

Both Maria and Katerina dropped the Putin surname entirely for security and privacy reasons. Maria became known as Vorontsova (her married name) and Katerina adopted the name Tikhonova — the patronymic of her maternal grandmother. It was the media and organisations such as the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation who first uncovered Tikhonova's projects at Moscow State University and Vorontsova's medical company, eventually revealing their true identities to the world. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace


Are Putin's Daughters Stepping Into Power?

After years in the shadows, Putin's family is increasingly visible in Russia. Both daughters spoke at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum — one of the most important events of the year for Russia's elite. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Analysts at the Carnegie Endowment now suggest the daughters may play an increasing role in Russia's future power structures, especially as questions about Putin's long-term succession grow louder.


Summary

Vladimir Putin's family story is one of survival, secrecy, and the extraordinary weight of Russian history. From a great-grandfather who cooked for Lenin and Stalin, to parents who survived the most brutal siege of World War II, to daughters who were hidden from the world for decades but are now quietly building billion-dollar empires in science and technology — the Putin family tree is one of the most fascinating, complex, and deliberately concealed in modern history. Their story is inseparable from the story of Russia itself.

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