Vladimir Putin's fascinating love life

From Miss Russia 2003 and a champion gymnast to his ex-wife and a ‘fling with a housecleaner’: Vladimir Putin’s fascinating love life… and his ‘secret children’

• Putin married his first wife in 1983, going on to divorce her three decades later
• Since he became president in 2000, there have been persistent rumours around extramarital affairs, children – and even a secret second wife hidden away

While he may be more accustomed to being in the spotlight for his politics, Vladimir Putin’s personal life has also been scrutinised – despite his best efforts.

From Miss Russia 2003 and a champion gymnast to his ex-wife and a ‘fling with a housecleaner’ the Russian despot’s love life has taken many twists and turns.

What’s more, if rumours are to be believed, he has at least four children who are kept largely secret, including a 20-year-old lovechild.

Media outlets have for years speculated and reported on two daughters he had with his ex-wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva: Maria, 37, and Katerina, 36.

But further gossip centres around rumours of two extramarital affairs, as well as his purported secret marriage to Olympic gymnast, Alina Kabaeva, who is said to be hidden away in a secret palace and guarded 24/7.

Here, MailOnline looks at what we know about Putin’s relationships, what the rumours say, and the questions that remain unanswered…

While he may be more accustomed to being in the spotlight for political reasons, Vladimir Putin’s personal life has also been scrutinised – despite his best efforts

Lyudmila Shkrebneva, Putin’s first wife and Russia’s former First Lady

In what would be seen in hindsight as the final years of the Soviet Union, Putin – a young and ambitious KGB official – met Russian flight attendant Lyudmila Shkrebneva in the pair’s home city of Leningrad – now St Petersburg.

Their introduction came when a mutual friend invited him to watch a concert performed by Arkady Raikin, a Russian stand-up comedian, sparking a relationship that would last as Putin rose the ranks of the Soviet secret service, become Prime Minister in 1999 and replace Boris Yeltsin as president a year later.

On July 28, 1983 the pair married, and they went on to live together in East Germany from 1985 to 1990 – during Putin’s murky time as a KGB agent in Dresden.

While there, Putin used a cover identity as a translator to work as one of the Soviet secret service’s liaison officers to the Stasi secret police. It was rumoured that Putin hid the fact he was a KGB spy from Shkrebneva during their early relationship.

It was also during this time that the couple had two children together: Maria Putina, 36 (1985), who uses the surname Vorontsova, and Katerina Tikhonova, 35 (1986).

However, reports suggest that the married couple grew apart over the years, and by the time Putin became president in 2000, they were already leading separate lives.

Vladimir Putin and Lyudmila Shkrebneva married in 1983 (pictured) during his time in the KGB – the Soviet security agency. However, reports suggest that the pair grew apart over the years, and by the time Putin first became president in 2000, they were already leading separate lives

After nearly three decades – and raising two daughters – it was announced in 2013 that Putin and Shkrebneva (pictured together) would divorce

Nevertheless, with Putin’s meteoric rise to the top of the Kremlin, Shkrebneva became Russia’s ‘first lady’, and continued to appear at various events with the Russian despot – even as speculation emerged about other women.

That was until 2013, when – after almost three decades – Putin announced the termination of their marriage. It was a mutual decision, it was said at the time.

The announcement was delivered to cameras at the Kremlin during an intermission in a televised performance by the Kremlin Ballet.

This ended years of speculation about their relationship, and in April 2014, the Kremlin confirmed the divorce had been finalised.

Shkrebneva is understood to have remarried and moved to France, although some rumours say her husband is a GRU military official tasked with keeping tabs on her.

As for their two daughters, both are living quite different lives.

Maria Putina is the co-owner of Nomenko, a healthcare investment firm, while her younger sister Katerina Tikhonova is a former competitive dancer who now runs an artificial intelligence initiative at Moscow State University.

Up until recently, Ms Putina was living in luxury in the Netherlands and was in a relationship with Dutch national Jorrit Faasen who has a high-flying job linked to Russian oil and gas industries.

Maria Vorontsova, Putin’s eldest daughter, is understood to have been born in 1986. She is the co-owner of Nomenko, a healthcare investment firm

Katerina Tikhonova, Maria’s younger sister, is a former competitive dancer who now runs an artificial intelligence initiative at Moscow State University

However, they were kicked out of the country and forced to flee back to Russia after the Dutch government imposed sanctions after Russian forces shot down passenger jet Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine, killing 298 – including 193 Dutch citizens.

As for Ms Tikhonova, she married Kirill Shamalov in 2013.

The director and part owner of Sibur – a Russian petrochemicals company – Shamalov went on to become Russia’s youngest billionaire, but the couple divorced in 2018, meaning he was no longer in the precarious position of Putin’s son-in-law.

Alina Kabaeva, Putin’s ‘secret wife’

Putin’s long marriage to Shkrebneva was not without its turbulence. 

In 2008, a bombshell was dropped on the Kremlin… in the form of a Russian newspaper report claiming Putin was having an affair.

While it wasn’t a literal act of war as we are seeing in Ukraine and Russia today, Putin’s fury was indicated by the fact that the newspaper was quickly shuttered.

The publication in question was Moskovsky Korrespondent which, in a brazen report about the Russian leader’s private life, said Putin was engaged to Alina Kabaeva – despite being still married to Shkrebneva – officially, at least.

Kabaeva is one of Russia’s most decorated gymnasts, having won two Olympic medals, 14 at the World Championships and 21 at the European Championships (although she was banned for two years in 2001 over a doping scandal).

Following her gymnastics career, the 40-year-old (who was born in 1983, the same year Putin married Shkrebneva) went on to assume a number of political positions.

In 2008, the Russian newspaper Moskovsky Korrespondent claimed that Putin was in a secret relationship with gymnast Alina Kabaeva (pictured in 2000 at the Sydney Olympics) – despite being still married to Shkrebneva. The newspaper was quickly closed down

Alina Kabaeva is seen delivering a speech during a patriotic themed gymnastics event in Moscow, 2022. She is wearing an orange and black ribbon and ‘Z’ symbols of the same colours – both of which re symbols of support for Russia’s on-going invasion of Ukraine

From 2007 to 2014, she was a State Duma deputy for United Russia – the largest political party in the country – and in 2014 became the chairwoman of the board of directors of the National Media Group. Her qualifications for these roles are unclear.

Moskovsky Korrespondent’s story – published on April 12, 2008 – claimed that Putin had divorced his then-wife Lyudmila and was to marry Kabaeva at Konstantinov Palace in Saint Petersburg.

The news spread to international publications and prompted Putin and Kabaeva to both issue denials, with Kabaeva also asking the paper to issue a retraction.

While the newspaper bowed to the pressure, its officers were visited several times by FSB agents, who the editor claimed were just friends coming to pick him up.

However, Radio Free Europe published its own story saying that the FSB had raided  the Korrespondent’s offices and interrogated the journalists involved in the story. It also said they detained the paper’s editor, a report he denied.

Just seven days after the initial story was published, the Moskovsky Korrespondent was shut down by the director of its parent company on April 19.

However, despite Putin’s attempts to quash the rumours, they have only grown since.

Kremlin sources claim the pair have a girl and two boys together, all of whom were born in Switzerland. Kabaeva reportedly gave birth to Putin’s daughter in 2015 (this was also denied) and two sons in 2019.

However, Swiss media – citing the couple’s Swiss gynecologist as a source – wrote that on both occasions, Kabaeva gave birth to a boy, only adding to the mystery.

Since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, speculation has intensified over where the Russian despot is hiding his secret family.

 Moskovsky Korrespondent’s story – published on April 12, 2008 – claimed that Putin had divorced his then-wife Lyudmila and was to marry Alina Kabaeva (pictured) at Konstantinov Palace in Saint Petersburg. The newspaper was promptly shut down

Kremlin sources claim Putin and Kabaeva (pictured) have a girl and two boys together, all of whom were born in Switzerland. Kabaeva reportedly gave birth to Putin’s daughter in 2015 (this was also denied) and two sons in 2019

In March this year it was reported that he was ‘more furious than ever’ over leaks that he had hidden his gymnast lover and their children away in a luxury mansion.

He was apparently ‘swearing’ and ‘yelling’, blaming his FSB security service and Kabaeva’s friends for the leak, which claimed that he and Kabaeva shared a secret life at a forest palace in Valdai, 250 miles north-west of Moscow.

After the leak, Putin reportedly argued with Kabaeva, claiming that her friends ‘talk on every corner about everything they know and don’t know’.

‘Putin said that he had 100 per cent information that the leak came from Kabaeva’s circle of friends,’ Telegram channel General SVR claimed.

Her whereabouts remain unknown, as does the truth behind the rumours about their supposed secret children. She was sanctioned by countries including the UK, Canada and the European Union in May 2022 over the war in Ukraine – strongly suggesting that top western officials are fully aware of her links to Putin.

Svetlana Krivonogikh, the millionaire ‘housekeeper’

In addition to Putin’s first and second wives, he has been persistently rumoured to have had relationships with two other women, the first being  Svetlana Krivonogikh.

Other than the fact that she was born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) in 1975 and went on to study at the city’s University of Economics and Finance in the department of international relations, little is known about her early life.

However, people interested in the secretive world of Vladimir Putin took an interest in her when she appeared to acquire the Russian president as a benefactor in the late 1990s, after she worked as a cleaner in a store.

In 2020, independent Russian investigative news site Proekt claimed that Krivonogikh formed a friendship with Putin while he was St Petersburg’s deputy mayor – and therefore still married to Lyudmila Shkrebneva.

Scarce public evidence suggests the pair travelled together on the same planes as Putin rose the ranks to the top of the Kremlin – becoming president in 2000 – with it being suggested that she was his housekeeper-turned-lover.

In addition to Putin’s first and second wives, he has been persistently rumoured to have had relationships with two other women, the first being Svetlana Krivonogikh (pictured) 

People interested in the secretive world of Vladimir Putin took an interest in Svetlana Krivonogikh her when she appeared to acquire the Russian president as a benefactor in the late 1990s, after she worked as a cleaner in a store

Perhaps as a personal jab at the Russian president, Krivonogikh was targeted in UK sanctions placed on Russia following his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

An offshore link in 2021, known as the Pandora Papers, revealed how she grew rich after Putin became Russia’s president in 2000.

She came into possession of several properties, including a luxurious Moscow apartment, bought in 2003 . She also became a shareholder in Bank Rossiya, a St Petersburg bank known for its connections to Putin’s inner circle.

According to Proekt, Krivonogikh accumulated a $100m fortune from her holding in Bank Rossiya. What’s more, she acquired a stake in the National Media Group.

Adding further to the intrigue around Putin’s mysteriously wealthy housekeeper is the fact that in March 2003 – three years after Putin became president and the same year Krivonogikh acquired the luxury Moscow flat – she gave birth to a daughter.

Luiza Rozova (pictured) is said to be the daughter of Svetlana Krivonogikh and Putin

For a time Rozova (pictured), who is now 20, regularly posted on Instagram about her own glamorous life – attending parties, spending time with friends from influential families and travelling on private jets

However, in the wake of Rozova’s alleged father’s invasion of Ukraine, she closed her Instagram when it was bombarded by people attacking her over Putin’s actions

It is believed that Putin ordered his ‘daughter’ Luiza Rozova to go quiet online

Her name was Elizaveta Krivonogikh, or Luiza Rozova, and she – Proeky claimed in 2020 – is actually Putin’s secret lovechild.

For a time Rozova, who is now 20, regularly posted on Instagram about her own glamorous life – attending parties, spending time with friends from influential families and travelling on private jets.

However, in the wake of her alleged father’s invasion of Ukraine, she closed her Instagram when it was bombarded by people attacking her over Putin’s actions.

This raised suspicions that Putin himself had ordered her to go quiet online.

Victoria Lopyreva, Putin’s ‘favourite girl’

The second woman Putin is rumoured to have had some form of relationship with outside of his two marriages is Victoria Lopyreva.

Better known for being crowned Miss Russia 2003, this blonde supermodel was said to have charmed the president, becoming his ‘favourite girl’.

In Russia, she is a television anchor who presents live football coverage, and has also tried her hand as an actress and reality star.

And in 2018, she was handed the ambassadorial role for the 2018 Fifa World Cup which Russia hosted that summer, at which Putin was a looming presence throughout, and was on the pitch when France were crowned the victors.

It is highly unlikely she would have been given the role of ambassador for Russia’s World Cup without Putin’s approval.

The second women Putin is rumoured to have had some form of relationship with outside of his two marriages is Victoria Lopyreva (pictured in 2018), who was crowned Miss Russia 2003

Victoria Lopyreva was said to have charmed the president, becoming his ‘favourite girl’

Through her work, Lopyreva has racked up almost 6 million followers on Instagram, but for some time it was claimed that Putin was among her biggest fans.

This was clearly mutual. In the past, she has urged her followers to vote on election days – all but rigged in Putin’s favour – and praised his victory after.

Despite their apparent mutual appreciation for one-another, rumours linking the two romantically are more difficult to pin down than his other leading ladies.

Lopyreva is understood to have been married to Russian football player Fedor Smolov for two years, from 2013 to 2015. He went on to criticise Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, writing ‘no war’ on his Instagram.

In 2019, Lopyreva gave birth to a boy in Miami, who she regularly posts photographs of to her social media. He does not resemble Putin

In 2017, Lopyreva was rumoured to be dating former Manchester United and Arsenal midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan after a picture of the pair together emerged online.

Two years after that, in 2019, she gave birth to a boy in Miami, who she regularly posts photographs of to her social media. He does not resemble Putin.

Nevertheless, being linked to women like Lopyreva does the despot’s macho persona no harm at home. According to Page Six, one Russian said of the president: ‘Putin doesn’t mind the speculation about these beautiful women.

‘It’s part of his real-man image.’

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