(Saint Petersburg) Their public appearances are rare, but the two alleged daughters of Vladimir Putin spoke this week at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), AFP journalists noted.
Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova are the well-known daughters of the Russian president and Lyudmila Putina, from whom he officially divorced in 2013. They were born in 1985 and 1986 respectively.
Their affiliation with the Russian president has never been officially confirmed, witness to the secrecy surrounding the private life of Vladimir Putin.
Maria Vorontsova is an endocrinologist at the National Research Center of Endocrinology in Moscow and also sits on the board of directors of a Russian medical research society.
A graduate of the Faculty of Medicine of Lomonosov Moscow State University, she specializes in childhood growth disorders, according to the online biography published on the research center’s website.
She spoke in person on Friday during a session on technologies and innovations at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, where Vladimir Putin was to speak in the afternoon at the traditional plenary session.
Katerina Tikhonova, the youngest, is a specialist in mechanical sciences and is part of the scientific council of Moscow State University where she manages Innopraktika, a fund to support young Russian scientists.
She spoke by videoconference on Thursday during a panel devoted to the future of the Russian economy to discuss the role of the defense sector in the development of “technological sovereignty”.
“State sovereignty is one of the key issues of recent years, it is the basis of Russia’s security,” Tikhonova said in her introductory statement broadcast via video link.
