Unseen photos of Vladimir Putin’s secretive daughters ‘leaked in revenge by strongman’s arch-enemy’
UNSEEN pictures of Vladimir Putin's daughters have emerged from the private collection of an estranged crony.
The images show Maria and Katerina, both from the Russian president's former marriage, as teenagers soon after he took power in the early 2000s.
They were released as part of an £11.6milllion legal case brought against the Russian state by former Putin confident Sergei Pugachev, 57, and lost this week in a Paris arbitration court.
Over his long political career, Putin has always kept his children, now in their 30s, out of the limelight, never permitting them to be seen and rarely even speaking about them.
The two can be seen inside the Kremlin and at the country home of now-exiled Pugachev, often in the company of Pugachev sons Viktor and Alexander.
Putin's then-wife, Lyudmila Ocheretnaya, from whom he divorced in 2014, can also be seen.
In one shot, they are seen in Putin’s library in the Kremlin.
In another, they are playing billiards on a table once used by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
They are also seen at a private party with Russian pop group Strelki, often dubbed the Russian Spice Girls.
Today Maria, 35, who uses the surname Vorontsova, has a career in medical research and is an expert on dwarfism, according to reports.
She is believed to be married to a Dutch businessman with whom she has a family, making Putin a grandfather.
Little is known of her, but she is said to be a fan of TV show Little Britain and she has listed her favourite book as 'Memoirs of a Geisha' by Arthur Golden.
Katerina, 33, known by the family name of her maternal grandmother, Tikhonova, has gone from being a high-kicking ‘rock’n’roll’ dancer to spearheading a major new Russian artificial intelligence initiative.
She previously gained attention with a series of spectacular “boogle woogle” Acrobatic Rock’n’roll performances in dance competitions.
She gained a doctorate from prestigious Moscow State University after completing a study on helping cosmonauts and pilots to orientate themselves in difficult conditions.
She was formerly married to Russia’s youngest billionaire, Kirill Shamalov, 38, though is now divorced.
Claims that Putin has a new family have never been confirmed.
Ex-KGB spy Putin once said of Maria and Katerina: "They are taking the first steps in their careers, but are making good progress. They are not involved in business or politics.
"They have never been 'star' children, they have never got pleasure from the spotlight being directed on them. They just live their own lives.
"They live in Russia. They have never been educated anywhere except Russia.
"I am proud of them, they continue to study and are working. My daughters speak three European languages fluently."
Pugachev, an ex-senator and formerly among Russia's wealthiest oligarchs, was previously known as Putin's "cashier".
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He claims Putins turned on him over a now-ended relationship Countess Alexandra Tolstoy, 46, a British socialite and distant relative of Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.
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He says he is the victim of a politically-motivated "asset grab" and that, in Russia, there is "no private property, only serfs who belong to Putin".
"All cash generated is put on the balance of Putin,” he said.
