The Sun
WITH a shadowy fortune estimated at £160billion, secret daughters, and deep rooted connections to the KGB – they don’t come more mysterious than Vladimir Putin.
Russia’s supremo will today meet with US President Joe Biden for the first time both as leaders in a summit which is predicted to be tense and a return to the uneasy status quo between the US and Russia.
Biden is expected to confront Putin as relations between the two superpowers have hit rocket bottom – with the veteran Democrat branding his opposite number a “killer”.
Election meddling, cyber attacks and military tensions over Ukraine are all expected to be on the table as the two butt heads and squabble for status on the world stage.
Despite great overtures to warm up relations between the West and Russia at the end of the Cold War, things have frozen over once again in the last decade.
Putin’s lavish lifestyle, shadowy past and hardman persona could not be more at odds with his opposite number, with Biden often seen as the bumbling but lovable uncle of US politics.
Vlad has already barbed at Biden for being a “career politician” – and suggested his attempts to talk tough about the him “Hollywood” tactics in an effort to appear “macho”.
Russia’s leader would much rather pose for pictures shirtless, be seen out hunting or competing in judo, while Biden prefers wholesome photo-ops indulging his love of ice cream or playing with his dogs.
And behind Putin’s often mocked tough guy persona appears to murky money and levels of power that would make a James Bond villain blush.
His enemies also tend to find themselves dying or having high profile attempts of their lives.
Vlad is estimated by opposition activists to have a personal fortune of up to £160billion – owning a fleet of cars, yachts and secret presidential palaces.
If this is claim is accurate – it would make Putin the world’s richest man, more flush than Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Putin always talks down his wealth – claiming to enjoy a relatively modest state wage of around £100,000.
“Career politician” Biden is estimated to have a net worth of around £6.3million – around 0.004 per cent of Putin’s wealth.
Political critic Boris Nemtsov compiled a dossier which alleged Putin even has four yachts secretly docked around Russia.
He also claimed Putin has 43 planes, 7,000 cars and 15 helicopters – including an Illyshin jet with a £50,000 gold toilet.
Nemtsov added Russia’s leader even has a watch collection which is worth some £500,000 – including one which is £300,000 alone.
And perhaps one of his most lavish palaces is said to be a sprawling £1billion pile at Gelendzhik on the Black Sea, which even appears to have a stripper pole.
Putin is alleged to use his personal wealth to create a “slush fund” for his family members – including his alleged mistresses and secret daughters.
It is reported this is part managed by Godfather-like figure billionaire Yury Kovalchuk, who has been described as the second most powerful man in Russia by opposition Proekt Media.
Leaked information shows that a pro-Kremlin media group that Kovalchuk has close ties to, pays Putin’s alleged partner Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva, 37, close to £8million a year, and made her chairman.
Shares to the same value in Rossiya Bank were arranged as “alimony” for a suspected former mistress, cleaner turned millionaire, Svetlana Krivonogikh, who Proekt claim is the mother of a secret Putin daughter Luiza.
SLUSH FUND
It is also that Kovalchuk’s empire has also provided indirect financial backing to Putin’s two daughters Maria Vorontsova, 35, and Katerina Tikhonova, 34, from his marriage to former Russian first lady Lyudmila, which ended in 2013.
Kovalchuk – worth £1.8 billion – controls directly or indirectly some 90 per cent of Russia’s “traditional media”, the report claims.
Proekt went on to say: “In other words, all Putin’s important women have been settled by (his) personal Consigliere.
“The futures of Katerina, Maria, Svetlana and Alina are in the safe hands of Yury Kovalchuk.”
Krivonogikh’s daughter Luiza Rozova, 18, also known as Elizaveta, s a student who has her own fashion label and works as a DJ.
Luiza often shares snaps from her lavish life on Instagram, but its unclear where she gets much of her wealth – fuelling rumours of her links to Putin.
Putin, 68, has not publicly acknowledged the enterprising student, nor any relationship with her mother, who has remained silent on the speculation.
The teenager however shares a striking resemblance to Vlad, something even she admits – but she has also not confirmed any relationship to him.
Putin is believed to have had an affair with her mother n the late 1990s and early 2000s, including the period when he headed Russia’s FSB counterintelligence service.
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