Putin's daughter Katerina's new boyfriend has same name as Ukrainian president Zelensky

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Putin's daughter Katerina's new boyfriend has same name as Ukrainian president Zelensky

Last Updated : 19 May 2022 04:48:33 PM IST

Vladimir Putins daughter Katerina Tikhonova has a lover called Zelensky -- the same name as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky -- according to reports, Daily Mail reported.

Sanctions against the 35-year-old Katerina -- imposed over her father's invasion of Ukraine -- have stopped her regular flights from Moscow to Munich to live with her new man, during which she would be accompanied by Russian secret service guards, the report said.

Her new partner, with whom she has a two-year-old daughter, is Igor Zelensky, 52, a leading professional ballet dancer and top director who until recently headed the Bavarian State Ballet.

The revelation comes from an investigation by Russian independent news outlet IStories and Germany's Der Spiegel.

Previously, Katerina, the younger Putin's two daughters from his marriage to ex-Kremlin first lady Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Ocheretnaya, was married to Russia's youngest billionaire Kirill Shamalov, 40.

They split in 2017 when she started the relationship with the ballet star who was also previously married and has two daughters and a son with choreographer Yana Serebryakova.

The Stories report said: "For two years, from 2017 to 2019, the little girl's mother had to fly this route � from Moscow to Munich and back � many dozens of times.

"She lived in Russia, and her daughter's father lived in Germany, where he directed the Bavarian State Ballet. His name is Igor Zelensky."

The journalistic investigation found documents proving flights involving "Tikhonova, Zelensky, a child, nannies, security guards". It revealed that over a two-year period "she flew to Munich, where Zelensky worked, more than 50 times".

From an anonymous source, the outlet obtained "documents from the e-mail of the Security Service of the President and Katerina's personal security guard Alexei Skripchak'.

'In Skripchak's documents there are passports of Putin's daughter, Zelensky and a girl born in 2017. Katerina's security guard bought them all tickets, Daily Mail reported.

"We do not disclose the child's name for ethical reasons, it is enough just to say that her patronymic is Igorevna, which corresponds to Zelensky's name," the report said.

Zelensky, who was Russian born with Georgian roots and not believed to be related to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, quit the Bavarian State Ballet last month, apparently after refusing to condemn Putin's war in Ukraine.