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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Will Stewart & Hannah Levene

Vladimir Putin's grandson, 10, moved to safety over fear of Ukrainian assassination

Vladimir Putin's grandson, 10, has been moved to safety over fears he could be the target of a Ukrainian assassination attempt.

A major strike on Saki military airfield meant a race involving the Russian president’s half-Dutch grandson Roman Faassen was shifted from resort Yevpatoria to faraway Chechnya.

The boy, aged 10, is in 28th place in the mini class of the Russian karting championships.

He is the son of Vladimir Putin's eldest daughter Maria Vorontsova, 37, from her first marriage to Dutch businessman Jorrit Faassen, the son of a NATO colonel.

Roman displays the flags of both Russia and The Netherlands on his belt.

His kart only displays the name of Russia.

Roman, 10, during a karting race in Tatarstan, Russia (Business Gazeta/EAST2WEST NEWS)

Soon after the explosions on August 9, reported as being the work of Ukrainian special services, a decision was taken to move the race in which Putin’s grandson would participate.

The re-arranged race is scheduled for September 9.

Roman is presenting Moscow in the competition and has so far raced five times this season.

Once in Chechen capital Grozny, Zelenograd, twice in Ryazan, and also in the village of Bogatye Saby near Kazan, reported Current Time.

Yevpatoria is around 13 miles from the blitzed Saki military airfield.

Putin refuses to talk about his family members but admitted in 2017: "I have grandchildren. They live normal lives... I want them to grow up to be normal people.

Maria Vorontsova is believed to be Putin's daughter (TV channel Doctor)

If I mention ages and names, they would be identified and never left alone.”

Vorontsova, 37, a paediatric endocrinologist, is the daughter of Putin and his ex-wife Lyudmila, previously the Russian first lady.

Sanctioned by Western countries over the war in Ukraine, she is now in a relationship with Yevgeny Nagorny, 34.

Pictures show Maria with Nagorny intending a wedding of doctor friends they attended near Salerno, Italy in 2019.

Born when the Russian president was a KGB spy, she is an expert in rare genetic diseases in children.

She is a leading researcher at the National Medical Research Centre for Endocrinology of the Ministry of Health of Russia. She is also an expert on dwarfism.

Roman’s father has worked long term in Russia at Gazprombank-Invest and Stroytransgaz.

Roman Faassen is the grandson of Vladimir Putin (Business Gazeta/EAST2WEST NEWS)

Maria’s divorced sister Katerina Tikhonova, 35, is deputy director of the Institute for Mathematical Research of Complex Systems at Moscow State University.

Tikhonova was once a high-kicking ‘rock’n’roll’ dancer who married Russia’s youngest billionaire Kirill Shamalov, 40, son of a close Putin crony.

But the marriage collapsed and Katerina started a relationship with ballet star Igor Zelensky, who had no relation to the Ukrainian president.

Putin also has another daughter Luiza Rozova, a 19-year-old heiress also known as Elizaveta Krivonogikh, from a previous relationship with cleaner-turned-multimillionaire Svetlana Krivonogikh, 47, now a part-owner of a major Russian bank.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (MIKHAIL METZEL/KREMLIN POOL/SPUTNIK/POOL/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Putin, 69, was once told by a BBC Russia reporter that it was an “open secret” that Maria and Katerina were his children, but he declined to confirm them as his daughters.

Speculation that he has a family with rhythmic gymnast turned media mogul Alina Kabaeva, 39, have been met with official denials, but the rumours persist.

Putin has previously said: "I have a private life in which I do not permit interference. It must be respected.”

He deplored "those who with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies prowl into others' lives”.

Kabaeva is on record as saying she had met a man who "I love very much”, gushing: "Sometimes you feel so happy that you even feel scared."

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