PHOTOS Who are Vladimir Putin’s daughters?

 

Who are Vladimir Putin’s daughters? Their father keeps close tabs on his family, and does not allow them to parade before cameras like the American celebrities they aspire to be.

Vladimir Putin–or “Poots,” as he is sometimes known–is a curious character. He embraces and avoids the limelight in about equal measure. All his most important decisions are made behind closed doors; all his gaudiest, most attention-getting ones are made right out in the open.

And that goes double for Vladimir Putin’s daughters. Maria, 29, and Yekaterina, 28, have never had their pictures published by Russian media. There is no official Putin family portrait. Putin discourages journalists who want to write stories about them.

In the wake of the MH17 debacle, though, both daughters have had to flee their home in the Netherlands. So the rest of the West is getting a first look at the two secretive women.

 

 

Maria is the more demure of the two. She went to school in Germany before returning home to study biology at St. Petersburg State University.

Her husband, Jorrit Faassen, was a high-ranking executive at Gazprom, the Russian state gas company that Putin has made a superpower with lucrative contracts.

 

You can see why her father wants to keep her away from prying eyes.

And Maria’s younger sister Yekaterina is even more of a mystery. It was rumored–though never confirmed–that she’d been engaged to marry the son of a South Korean admiral. Yekaterina’s father was not keen on the marriage, mostly because he didn’t want either of his daughters to do anything so public as exchange nuptuals.

It’s said that Big Daddy Vladdy changed his tune once he met the potential groom.

Another South Korean, Yoon Joon-won, whose father worked at the Korean embassy in Moscow, confirmed that he had indeed been a suitor of Yekaterina’s. But that was all he would confirm.

Their father asserts his right to privacy when shrouding his family from the public eye. Poots has gone so far as to shut down newspapers that publish unapproved or unfavorable material about his family.

And then there is the matter of Putin’s own divorce, long in the making, which was finalized in April of this year.

It would seem, then, that if you want to get close to either daughter, you’ll have to go through Dad. And that might be easier for women than for men.

(Photo credits: Vladimir Putin’s daughters via WENN)