Vladimir Putin regularly allows the Russian public glimpses into his private world - from bare-chested horse-riding in Siberia to weightlifting at his Black Sea mansion,
But there’s one part of his life that Vladimir Putin is determined to keep hidden - his children.
Russian journalists have for years been aware that, while they are encouraged to swoon over his macho-man diving expeditions and hiking holidays, any mention of the President’s family is very much off-limits.
In fact, Putin, who loves to give long-winded interviews and televised speeches, has never publicly acknowledged any of his offspring.
And while it is common knowledge the 69-year-old President shares two daughters with his ex-wife, few dare speak of it, even when they appear together.
In 2018, he said: “I have a private life in which I do not permit interference. It must be respected.
“I have always reacted negatively to those who with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies prowl into others’ lives.”
There is also speculation that the former head of the KGB fathered another daughter after an extra-marital affair and even reports that he shares four children with a former Olympic gymnast once dubbed ‘the most flexible woman in Russia ’.
Many must now be wondering what they must be thinking watching Putin destroy homes and leave children orphaned in Ukraine - especially as many have strong links with the Western countries he hates.
Others have decided that their silence about the war is just as bad.
Over the weekend activists broke into a £4million villa in Biarritz, southern France, belonging to purported daughter Katerina Tikhonova, declaring it to be a shelter for Ukrainian refugees.
And last week a group occupied land in Amsterdam belonging to her sister Maria Faaseen - scattering candles, and leaving a note.
“Less than 2,000km from your peaceful piece of free land, your father is decimating an entire free country and its people,” it read. “Please use your heart to reach his and stop this senseless suffering.”
University College London’s Ben Noble, co-author of a new biography on opposition figure Alexey Navalny - Navalny: Putin’s Nemesis, Russia’s Future? - says Putin’s blackout on any mention of his family “couldn’t be a bigger contrast with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ”.
He says: ”Before the invasion, Zelensky was so often seen smiling surrounded by his family.
"The image of Putin now is one of him isolated, serious, and working on his own in the Kremlin. The optics are so remarkably different.”
Maria, 36, and Katerina, 35, are his two alleged daughters by ex-wife Lyudmila Putina, who he divorced in 2013 after 30 years of marriage - although he has never publicly named them as his heirs.
Maria was born in her father’s home city Leningrad - now St Petersburg - in 1985, and Katerina in Germany, where the family lived during Putin’s time in the KGB.
The girls then attended a German-language school after the family moved to Moscow in 1996, but were taught at home after their father became acting president four years later.
Both then studied at St Petersburg State University, under false identities.
Maria, now 36, become a paediatric endocrinologist and a top expert on dwarfism. She’s married to Dutch businessman Jorrit Faassen, with whom she shares a child - making Putin a grandfather.
When filmmaker Oliver Stone reportedly asked Putin if he played with his grandchild, the president was said to have replied: “Very seldom, unfortunately.”
Katerina, 35, on the other hand, is best known for her success as an acrobatic rock ’n roll dancer and a member of Russia’s Council for the Development of Physical Culture and Mass Sports.
She was previously married to Kirill Shamalov, the son of the co-owner of one of Russia’s largest banks.
But while some might reasonably hope Putin’s Westernised daughters might be horrified enough to try his aggression, others aren’t so optimistic.
Lyudmila Putina revealed how the president “spoils” Maria and Katerina.
“Not all fathers are as loving with their children as he is. He has always spoiled them, while I was the one who had to disciple them,” she wrote on a Government website.
Now grown up, both enjoy lavish lifestyles.
When Katerina divorced in 2018, it was revealed she and her ex had shared assets of £1.5billion, thanks to a stake in Russian petrochemicals company SIBUR Holding, acquired from oligarch Gennady Timchenko, a longtime friend of Putin.
Their seaside villa in France is estimated at £2.8million.
Katerina was also in charge of a billion-pound state project to establish a science hub at Moscow State University.
Meanwhile, Maria was alleged to have a home in Surrey.
It was speculated the sisters were about to take on a more prominent public role after their surprise appearance at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum last year.
Katerina gave a six-minute speech and Maria gave a 13-minute interview on rare diseases that was broadcast on state TV.
Commentator, Andrei Kolesnikov of the Carnegie Moscow Centre, remarked: “Why bring these purported daughters of Putin to such an event and what was the point of them speaking publicly?
“Maybe this is just a little drawing back of the curtain. Maybe this is a foretaste of some sort of emergence onto the big stage.”
Mystery surrounds Putin’s other alleged offspring.
Luiza Rozova, 18, has never formally been acknowledged by the Russian President but was reported to be his lovechild with Svetlana Krivonogikh, 45, a former cleaner who is now a part-owner of a major Russian bank and one of the country’s wealthiest women.
The independent media outlet which first aired rumours of the affair was later barred from functioning by the authorities. While Luiza has never made any public comments about her father, she recently admitted to Russian GQ that she “probably looks similar” to a young Putin.
The 18-year-old’s Instagram account, which had had 84,000 followers, was deleted last week.
In 2008, the Russian newspaper Moskovsky Korrespondent ran a story reporting that Putin had fallen for Russian Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva, 39.
The rumours persisted when, in 2015, she was pictured pregnant and spoke of a mystery man she “loves very much”.
She was alleged to have given birth to seven-year-old twin daughters in Switzerland in February that year, and some claimed they also share two boys, although their ages or existence have never been formally confirmed.
The family have a luxury mansion in the Swiss lakeside idyll of Lugano - where, as Putin’s bombs rain down on family homes in Ukraine, they are believed to be hiding out.
Any hope that the children will be able to dissuade their father from his ongoing attack on Ukraine is slim.
None are ever seen making political comments or revealing their political allegiance -even if photos show them looking distinctly westernised.
It’s even been claimed in Moscow that Putin is gradually grooming Katerina as his eventual successor in 2024.
“Trying to run a woman through an election campaign in Russia is quite an interesting and modern political experiment,” wrote Natalia Gevorkyan, a Putin biographer.
“Putin does not have a (male) heir - at least officially.
"But Katerina has already entered the public space with several huge and costly projects," she wrote for Radio Svoboda website.
“In 2024, Katerina will be 38. In theory, she can take part in the presidential elections and provide a calm time in old age for her father and his closest friends.”
Luiza has kept equally obtuse about her personal politics.
Her now-deleted Instagram posts were all about her extravagant snap-happy lifestyle: her breakfast of sliced exotic fruit on heart-shaped plates, bikini selfies, her smart Paris apartment, new shoes and trips to the Louvre.
Her job as an ambassador for a high-end personal shopping site, similarly suggests she shares Putin’s love of high fashion but gives no indication of whether she shares his views.
And with her not even publicly acknowledged by Putin, whatever she might be feeling about his actions in Ukraine is likely to bear little import on the world stage.
