Russian President Vladimir Putin has handed out top jobs in the Russian government and state-run companies to at least 20 of his relatives – including his ex-wife and former lovers, according to a new report.
The Proekt investigative website published a detailed exposé listing members of Putin’s extended family whose careers have flourished thanks to their connection to the former KGB officer.
It claimed that nepotism under Putin could surpass anything seen since the days of Nicholas II, Russia’s last tsar.
Among the most powerful is Anna Tsivilyova, the daughter of Putin’s late cousin Yevgeny Putin.
She was appointed deputy defence minister in 2024, just a month after her husband, Sergei Tsivilyov, left his post as governor of the coal-rich Kemerovo region to become energy minister.
Ukraine’s military intelligence service believes Tsivilyova was brought into the defence ministry to spy on officials, tracking corruption and loyalty and reporting directly to Putin.
Her son from a previous marriage, Dmitry Loginov, 27, also appears to have benefited from the family’s powerful network.
He owns and runs firms linked to Kolmar, the coal-mining company controlled by his mother.
Her brother, Mikhail Putin, is an executive at Gazprom, the state-controlled energy company.
His 28-year-old son, Denis Putin, is a shareholder in the Sheremetyevo business complex, whose tenants include state companies, the report said.
The president has also pulled some strings to secure lucrative roles for Igor Putin and Lyubov Kruglova, his cousins.
Kruglova’s son, Viktor Khmarin, is at the helm of RusHydro, one of Russia’s largest electricity companies, Proekt reported.
The investigative website has been banned by the Kremlin and its journalists live abroad.
Putin’s two adult daughters with his ex-wife, Lyudmila, are rising in prominence.
Maria Vorontsova, an endocrinologist, and Katerina Tikhonova, a technology executive, both spoke at last year’s International Economic Forum in St Petersburg, one of the most important events of the year for Russia’s elite.
Putin has never officially acknowledged either of the women as his daughters, although the relationship is common knowledge.
Putin is also said to have two young sons with Alina Kabaeva, a former Olympic rhythmic gymnast, and a daughter with Svetlana Krivonogikh, a former shop cleaner who became his mistress.
Earlier this year, it was revealed Kabaeva was secretly paid by a military unit linked to the dictator when she was only 17 years old.
She was already a star rhythmic gymnast, and had won her first gold medal two years earlier.
But this link to Putin was around eight years before her hidden relationship with the dictator, now 73, was first publicly aired by a Russian newspaper, which was rapidly shut down.
It was also four years before she won her Olympic Gold at the 2004 Games.
Kabaeva, now 41, believed to share two young sons with Putin, is now one of Russia’s wealthiest women, with a hidden property empire worth at least £81.85 million, although even today Putin does not acknowledge his relationship with the glamorous woman.
The payment comes from military unit Number 16660 located in Ramenskoye near Moscow.
The unit is part of the Federal Protective Service [FSO] and is directly controlled by the Russian president.
The payments were made in 2000–2001, Putin’s first full year as president, and were highlighted by the media outlet from Kabaeva’s official confidential pension records.
