Would it surprise you to learn that Vladimir Putin was a lonely child? Or that he does
martial arts as a hobby? Keep watching for more potential insights into the Russian president.
In his 2000 book, "First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait,"
Vladimir Putin admits a lot. His father was away from home for many of his formative years,
and his mother was often on the brink of starvation. Putin writes,
"Once my mother fainted from hunger. People thought she had died, and they
laid her out with the corpses. Luckily Mama woke up in time and started moaning."
Author Masha Gessen, who wrote "The Man Without A Face: The Unlikely Rise
Of Vladimir Putin," told The Mirror that Putin had a fairly lonely childhood. They explained,
"Putin's parents worked pretty much around the clock,
his mother various unskilled jobs, his father at a factory.
He was left to his own devices. He hung out in the courtyard with other boys, like all children did."
Gessen also said that, despite those hardships, Putin's parents found a way to indulge him.
He was given a gift of a wristwatch, something that was hard for many families to come by,
and when his parents won a car, they gave it to him. Gessen said,
"There's a lot of proof he feels he is chosen now."
In "Man Without a Face," Gessen reveals that Putin endured a lot of bullying as a child.
"What Putin really wanted to tell people was the fights that he'd gotten into."
They say he responded by studying the martial art Sambo, a combat sport developed by the
Soviet Union in the early 1920s, according to Inside the Games. Putin eventually
switched to studying Judo so he could enter competitions, eventually earning a black belt.
In 2018, editor and writer Benjamin Wittes challenged Putin to a Judo match,
claiming the Russian president was overstating his abilities. On his site, Lawfare, Wittes writes,
"Putin only fights people who are in his power, whom he can have arrested,
whose lives he can ruin. And I think they're all taking falls for him."
However, author Michael Veltri, a master-instructor of the Japanese martial
art Aikido, wrote his own piece for Lawfare in which he defends Putin's skills, explaining,
"What is clear in the videos is that Putin's technique is sharp,
as are his reflexes—especially for a 65-year-old man."
Putin had an interest in working in intelligence for the Soviet Union since he was a teenager,
and, according to the Kremlin website, attempted to work for the KGB before he even
graduated high school. After volunteering for the intelligence agency at just 16,
Putin went on to get his law degree at Leningrad State University, along with a doctorate in
economics. He eventually became one of 100 young people selected to work for the KGB.
In 1975, Putin joined the staff of the First Chief Directorate for Foreign Intelligence,
where he was assigned to tail foreign visitors to the Soviet Union. CNN notes that he steadily moved
up in the ranks, and by 1985, he was assigned as an operative in Dresden — then, in East Germany —
while also keeping tabs on which diplomats from the Soviet Union continued to be trustworthy.
Putin stayed with the organization until his political career kicked off in the early 1990s,
when he resigned to work as the chairman of the committee for international relations.
In 1997, then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin tapped Putin as the newest deputy chief
administrator of the Kremlin. From there, Putin's ascent to power was quick. According to CNN,
in 1998, he became chief of the Federal Security Service, and, in 1999, was named secretary of
the Russian Security Council. He was appointed as prime minister in August of that same year.
Yeltsin, meanwhile, was in the throes of a political scandal,
and he ultimately resigned from office in December 1999. Putin assumed the role of
acting president, gave Yeltsin immunity, and was elected president in March 2000.
He campaigned as an independent candidate and won re-election in 2004.
Putin made many non-traditional moves for a Russian president,
including a 2005 visit to Israel, which reportedly marked the first
time a leader from the Soviet Union or Russia had visited the country.
Putin wasn't eligible to run for president in 2008 due to a mandated limit of two consecutive
terms. So his ally Dmitry Medvedev ran for and won the office instead, with Putin serving as
prime minister. Putin then ran for and won his third term as president in 2012.
Some believed the 2012 Russian election results were fraudulent. As CNN noted at the time,
one of Putin's first steps was to amend the constitution to allow for a president to
serve for six years instead of four, which would allow him to serve back-to-back terms until 2024.
Unsurprisingly, Putin was thrilled with his victory. The Guardian notes that,
in his victory speech, he proclaimed,
"We were able to save ourselves from political provocations,
which have one goal: to destroy Russian sovereignty and usurp power."
"We have won. Long live Russia!"
For someone so prominent on the world stage, little is known about Putin's personal life.
There's no clear answer to how many children he has, or who those children are.
Business Insider reports that Putin has two daughters with ex-wife Lyudmila.
One daughter, Maria, was born in 1985, and the second, Katerina, was born the following year.
Maria reportedly works as a medical researcher and lives with her husband in Moscow, while
Katerina is a former acrobatic dancer who works a senior role at Moscow State University. In 2021,
Katerina joined an international business conference and spoke about litigating
international investment disputes. The Washington Post notes that both women
have hinted at an interest in holding their own positions in public office in the future.
Vladimir Putin's personal life is said to be completely off limits for the news media, which
is something many have said Putin enforces through fear tactics. In October 2021, British publication
The Spectator published a piece claiming Putin has a third daughter he never mentions.
The Spectator cited Russian outlet The Proekt, which claimed Putin's alleged third daughter was
born in 2003. The Proekt was shut down, and its editor, Roman Badanin, was declared a "foreign
agent." This wasn't the first time a publication felt Putin's wrath; in 2008, the Moskovsky
Korrespondent was closed after it reported Putin was preparing to marry a rumored mistress.
At a press conference that year, Putin told a roomful of journalists,
"I have a private life in which I do not permit interference. It must be respected."
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