Their parents are real estate owners in the most luxurious neighborhoods of European capitals. Their profiles on social networks are full of luxurious clothes and events on red carpets.
Typical example? A young girl uploaded photos of herself at 22α her birthday, by the pool of a villa in the Adriatic Sea of one of Putin's oligarchs.
These are his children Kremlin.
At a time when their parents are in a relentless struggle against the West, their children are growing up in the same countries whose citizens seem to reject them.
"This is blatant hypocrisy," said Daniel Traisman, a professor at the University of California who specializes in Russian politics.
"They do not even see the disagreement. "They believe that there is competition between the United States and Russia, but they do not see how this can affect their plans for educating their children or where they should have their villas."
"They do not even see the disagreement. "They believe that there is competition between the United States and Russia, but they do not see how this can affect their plans for educating their children or where they should have their villas."
In a speech last month, Putin himself criticized Russians who "mentally" ally themselves with the West, criticizing them for being part of a "superior race" working with the West to "destroy Russia."
Nevertheless, Vladimir Putin appears convinced that the Russian people "will always have the opportunity to separate the true patriots from the bastards and traitors and will spit them out like a mosquito that accidentally entered their mouths."
One of the first families of rumored Russian corruption and hypocrisy is this Dmitry Peshkov, Putin's chief of staff and spokesman, a role that makes him the "voice" of the Russian president and one of the people who launches the Russian president's vitriolic line against the West on an almost daily basis.
The United States recently imposed sanctions on Dmitry Peshkov, his wife and two children, saying they were living "luxurious lives that are not in line with Peshkov's salary as a civil servant."AP Photo / Alexander Zemlianichenko
According to the US Treasury Department, Peshkov, who has been in this position for almost a decade, graduated in 2020. 173.000 dollars.
He has been seen wearing a $ 600.000 watch and renting yachts for $ 430.000 a week for his honeymoon in Sardinia, according to research by the Anti-Corruption Foundation, founded by jailed Russian leader Alexei Navalny.
Based on assets, social media posts and traffic violations databases, the same foundation also revealed that Peshkov's wife, ex-wife and children own luxury vehicles and homes worth millions of people around the world, an obvious a display of wealth that contrasts sharply with the nearly 20 million Russians living in poverty.
But the impressive but seemingly inexplicable wealth of some families in Putin's environment, according to experts, comes to a single conclusion: kleptocracy.
"Kleptocracy is just a government ruled by thieves," said Georgetown University professor Jodi Vittori, an expert on corruption and international politics.
"There, policies and decisions are made by these thieves.
"There, policies and decisions are made by these thieves.
There is a complex web of shell companies, offshore banks and undercover transactions that blurs the revenue landscape as the money flow is so confusing that it makes it difficult to trace the source of the resources.
The wealth amassed by Russian kleptocrats is often spent in Western economies.
"They want to live in the West as the richest countries are in the West, as well as the centers of culture. In addition, Western countries have much safer legal rules than Russia. "So if they can make a lot of money in the West, they can feel safer."
"They want to live in the West as the richest countries are in the West, as well as the centers of culture. In addition, Western countries have much safer legal rules than Russia. "So if they can make a lot of money in the West, they can feel safer."
Open secret
The hypocrisy of Russian officials and their families who enjoy Western luxury has been a common secret in Russia for years.
In 2016, one was introduced in the Duma law forbidding the minor children of Russian officials from attending foreign universities, arguing that domestic education is the key to becoming a true patriot.
The law did not pass.
Peshkov's 24-year-old daughter from his second marriage, Elisabeta Peskova - whose posts on social media are often the subject of articles in Russian and European tabloids, has been criticized several times, such as when he said on Russian television that he felt "better in a European environment" and called Russia's education system a real hell. .
Most recently she made a sensation when she posted on her Instagram account the phrase "no to war", a slogan used by Russians who oppose the war in Ukraine. The post was also shared as a screenshot on Russian television, to be downloaded very quickly.
Peshkov's 24-year-old daughter, Elisaveta Peskova, grew up in Paris where she owns a multimillion-dollar apartment with her mother in one of the city's most expensive neighborhoods.Instagram
As a child, Pescova attended a French school with an annual tuition of about four times her father's salary while continuing her Parisian education as a trainee in Louis Vuitton and in the European Parliament.
According to the Anti-Corruption Foundation, Peskova and her mother bought an apartment of 2016 sq.m. in 180. worth about $ 2 million in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Paris, Avenue Victor Hugo.
Pescova's luxurious life in Paris parallels that of her half-brother in Russia.
A 2017 survey found that Peshkov's eldest son, who grew up in England, traveled the world on private jets, owned civilian homes in Moscow and had at least 116 traffic violations with his luxury vehicles, despite the fact that that he was treated as unemployed.
"It certainly represents a high level of cynicism at least, if not total hypocrisy," says Professor Vittori.
"It certainly represents a high level of cynicism at least, if not total hypocrisy," says Professor Vittori.
Peskova herself described the sanctions and the perception that she somehow legitimizes the war as "completely unfair and ungrounded", while she told Business Insider "upset" by the restrictions, which do not allow her to travel.
In a statement on the Telegram platform, she said she was a proud Russian woman and described it as crazy to "punish" children and "especially a girl".
Peskova, however, is not the only offspring associated with the Kremlin living in the foam of the European elite.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, who in 2017 called for a "post-Western" order of things, sent his daughter to renowned universities in London and New York.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who called for a "transcendental" world order in 2017, sent his daughter to prestigious universities in London and New YorkAP Photo / Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool
Even the daughter of Lavrov's rumored partner seems to be taking advantage of her privileged position: she uploads photos of herself on yachts, in Austrian ski resorts and in the villas of oligarchs.
Polina Kovaleva - whom the British government calls Lavrov's "adopted daughter" even though the foreign minister is not officially married to her mother - owns a $ 5,8 million apartment in one of London's most expensive neighborhoods. as revealed by the recent sanctions imposed on it.
Lavrov's "adopted daughter" Polina Kovaleva, pictured here at the villa of oligarch Oleg Deripaska in Montenegro, appears to be benefiting from Lavrov's connections to the KremlinCNNi
The Anti-Corruption Foundation has revealed that Kovaleva bought her Kensington apartment when she was 21 years old.
The apartment is very close to Imperial College, where he also attended.
Lavrov's much more expensive 39-year-old daughter, Ekaterina Vinokourova, attended Columbia University in New York, where she lived for 17 years before crossing the Atlantic to earn her master's degree from the London School of Economics.
Both were sanctioned by the British government.
But also himself Putin he is no exception to the hypocrisy of harsh anti-Western rhetoric, as shown by or close to his family members, taking advantage of what the West has to offer.
One of his alleged partners, with whom he is believed to have had a daughter, owns a $ 4,1 million apartment in Munich, which he acquired just a few weeks after the birth of the child, according to the famous Pandora Papers.
His eldest daughter, Maria, is married to a Dutch businessman with whom she has lived in a $ 3,3 million apartment in the Netherlands.
But his youngest daughter, Katerina, is also linked to an eight-bedroom villa in Biarritz, France.
The luxury home recently occurred in possession of activists and was offered as a safe haven in Ukrainian refugees.
Both of Putin's daughters were targeted by US and British sanctions last week.
Peshkov described the new measures "violent trendWashington to impose sanctions on Moscow.
"Russia will respond accurately and do as it sees fit," he added.
"Russia will respond accurately and do as it sees fit," he added.
Putin is rumored to have more children out of wedlock and all appear to have lived in Western countries. Such reports have traditionally been refuted by the Kremlin.
Despite his family members' connections to the West, Putin recently targeted other Russians with "villas in Miami or the French Riviera that they can not afford without foie gras, oysters or gender freedom, as they call it."
The problem with such people, Putin said on March 16, is that "they have it in mind and not here with our people and with Russia."
CNN