At least 24 relatives and close associates of Vladimir Putin have reportedly been appointed by the Russian president to key positions in government and state-owned companies, according to a report by an independent Russian investigative media outlet. The evidence of the Russian president’s “nepotism” was presented by the Proekt website, based on a new book by its senior editors, Roman Badanin and Mikhail Rubin, titled “The Tsar in Person: How Vladimir Putin Deceived Us All.” The book describes in detail the alleged long-term relationships of the Russian president and the network of influence surrounding them. Specifically, Proekt lists the people Putin has “placed,” who are members of his extended family and whose careers have benefited from their kinship with the Kremlin’s strongman. The website—whose operation is banned by the Kremlin and whose editors live abroad—argues that nepotism during Putin’s time in power possibly exceeds anything observed in Russia since the era of its last Tsar, Nicholas II.
Putin: The 24 people he “placed”
Among the most powerful of the Russian president’s favored relatives is the daughter of his late cousin, Yevgeny Putin, Anna Tsivileva, who was appointed Deputy Defense Minister last year, just one month after her husband, Sergei Tsivilyov, left his position as governor of the coal-rich Kemerovo region to take charge of the Energy Ministry. Ukraine’s military intelligence service believes Tsivileva was placed in Russia’s Defense Ministry to spy on officials, monitor their loyalty to the Kremlin and corruption, and report directly to Putin.
Her 27-year-old son from a previous marriage, Dmitry Loginov, also appears to have benefited from the Russian president’s powerful family network, as he owns and manages companies connected to Kolmar, the coal mining company controlled by his mother.
Tsivileva’s brother, Mikhail Putin, is a senior executive at Gazprom, the state energy company, and his 28-year-old son, Denis Putin, is a shareholder in the Sheremetyevo business conglomerate, whose tenants include state companies, according to the Proekt report. The Russian president reportedly also moved to secure lucrative positions for his cousins on his father’s side, Igor Putin and Lyubov Kruglova, whose son, Viktor Khmarin, heads RusHydro, one of Russia’s largest electricity generation companies.
The women in Putin’s life
Beyond his ex-wife, Lyudmila Ocheretnaya, the women linked to Putin include former cleaner turned multi-millionaire Svetlana Krivonogikh, and Alisa Khartseva, a former Moscow University student who posed in a daring calendar for Putin’s 58th birthday. According to Proekt’s investigation, Khartseva’s father heads the NGO Dialog, which promotes dialogue between state and society and has been involved in facilitating Russian state-supported initiatives.
Putin’s two adult daughters, from his marriage to Lyudmila, are meanwhile securing increasingly prominent exposure in Russia. Maria Vorontsova, an endocrinologist, and Katerina Tikhonova, a technology executive, spoke last year at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, one of the year’s most important events for Russia’s elite. Putin has never officially acknowledged either woman as his daughter, although their relationship is well known. The Russian president also reportedly has two sons with his rumored mistress, Alina Kabaeva, a former Olympic rhythmic gymnastics champion, and a daughter with Svetlana Krivonogikh. Earlier this year it was revealed that Kabaeva was secretly paid by a military unit connected to Putin when she was just 17 years old and had won her first gold medal two years earlier. Kabaeva, now 41, is one of Russia’s wealthiest women, with hidden assets worth at least 92 million euros.
