Does Putin have a lovechild with his ex-cleaner?
(who’s now a millionaire nightclub boss)
VLADIMIR Putin has a secret love child with a f ormer cleaner, i t was claimed yesterday.
The Russian leader is said to have had an affair with Svetlana Krivonogikh and fathered Elizaveta, 17, during his first term as president.
His former mistress, 45, is now a multi-millionaire who owns a nightclub famed for erotic shows, news site Project reported.
It said Elizaveta’s middle name is Vladimirovna – indicating her father’s name is Vladimir.
But there is apparently no name for him on the birth certificate. Pictures of the teenager’s face have not been published.
Project reported facial recognition expert Hassan Ugail, of the University of Bradford, concluded she ‘bears a phenomenal resemblance to the Russian president’.
Software allegedly showed a 70.44% similarity with Putin.
Ms Krivonogikh is said to have worked as a cleaner in a shop as a teen before going to university.
She would accompany Mr Putin on journeys in the late 1990s when she was in her 20s. The economics graduate is now said to have almost €9million of shares
‘Secret friend known as Daddy’
in Bank Rossiya, having suddenly come into money in 2000. Ms Krivonogikh also owns the Leningrad Centre club and is said to be worth as much as €84million.
Former neighbours at her flat in St Petersburg said she had a s ecret wealthy benefactor referred to as ‘Daddy’. Afterwards she and her mother quickly moved to an upmarket property in the city.
Love child Elizaveta was born in 2003, it was claimed.
The relationship supposedly ended around the time Putin began to be linked to Olympic gold- winning gymnast Alina Kabaeva, now 37 and head of a pro-Kremlin media company.
Mr Putin, 68, has two daughters, Maria, 35, and Katerina, 34, from his marriage to Lyudmila Putina. The couple divorced in 2013.
Questioned about the relationship with Ms Kri v o nogikh, Mr Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: ‘ I’ve been asked about this last name. But I’ve never heard anything about it and I don’t know anything.’ The president’s personal life has recently become a t arget of i ndependent and opposition media, who are growing in bravery in taking on the long-standing leader. He was recently reported to have medical problems and his family have apparently asked him to s t and down next year. Ms Krivonogikh and her daughter are understood to have removed their social media pages following publication of the claims.
She is known to be close to Mr Putin’s longtime oligarch friend Yury Kovalchuk, the biggest shareholder in Bank Rossiya. The bank was sanctioned by the West after Russia’s 2014 military annexation of Crimea.
Project said it had contacted Ms Krivonogihk but she was unable to speak because she was on a train.
‘She promised to call back but never did,’ it reported.
Project was unable to contact her further.
Unable to speak as she was on train