In the spring of 2015, rumors began circulating that the Russian president's mistress, Alina Kabaeva, had given birth to a child in a private clinic in Lugano, Switzerland. The Kremlin quickly denied this.
Three years later, similar reports emerged: former elite gymnast Kabaeva was once again traveling back and forth to Switzerland. Kabaeva's second son was reportedly born in Moscow in the spring of 2019 with the help of a visiting gynecologist from the Lugano clinic, writes Dossier Center. An acquaintance of the doctor confirmed to the Swiss Sonntagszeitung that Vladimir Putin is the father of Kabaeva's child.
The Dossier Center, which received its information from a person working in the presidential residence, calls them Ivan and Vladimir. There is no trace in government records of the boys, who are said to have lived under the same type of protection as spies since birth.
The requirement: Do not leave the area
The sons are taught by private tutors and barely meet any peers. They live under constant surveillance by the Russian FSO (Federal Security Service) and when they travel, it is by private jet, luxury yachts or armored trains. Like their father, they drink only from personal mugs, according to the Dossier Center's survey .
Several clues to the children's lives can be found in a job advertisement with a nannies and private tutors agency, known for recruiting staff for oligarchs and the Russian elite.
“The family lives in isolation,” reads the 2024 ad seeking an English teacher for two boys, ages four and eight. Among the requirements: “Willingness to undergo a medical examination during the first two weeks” – which, according to Dossier Center, means strict quarantine – and “working in isolation, not leaving the employer’s premises.” Travel is included in the position.
Lego, Disney and hockey
The family prefers a South African candidate, likely because South Africa is one of the few English-speaking countries with friendly ties to Russia. The salary is the equivalent of over 80,000 kronor a month – a mere fantasy for most Russian teachers.
Ivan and Vladimir like Lego and, much to their parents' chagrin, Disney movies, writes Dossier Center. They only see their parents late at night, and rarely their father. According to the review, every moment with their father is a celebration. In the residence in Valdai, halfway between Moscow and St. Petersburg, Putin and the eldest son are said to sometimes play hockey together.
Putin also has two adult daughters from his previous marriage to Lyudmila Putina (now Ocheretnaya), and probably another daughter with former cleaning lady Svetlana Krivonogich.
Dossier Center was founded in 2017 by former oil magnate and Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once called Russia's richest man.
Khodorkovsky lives in exile in Europe after being pardoned in 2013 from a ten-year prison sentence in Russia for, among other things, money laundering.
The Dossier Center examines what it calls criminal activity linked to individuals associated with Russia's power headquarters, the Kremlin. The aim is to collect evidence that can be used in future legal cases against Kremlin-linked corrupt individuals and companies.
The Dossier Center has published a number of investigations, including into the 2018 murders of three Russian journalists in the Central African Republic and the Wagner Group paramilitary group. The organization has also profiled the GRU agents suspected of poisoning former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, in 2018, and published a notable dig into Vladimir Putin's armored train.
The Dossier Center website is blocked in Russia by the country's censorship authority Roskomnadzor.
Sources: Dossier Center, Meduza, AP
