The Russian leader has two daughters from his marriage with Lyudmila Putina, which ended in 2014. Katerina Tikhonova, 35, is the youngest of the two, and, after she separated with her husband in 2017, she is said to be seeing a man named Igor Zelensky. A joint investigation of Der Spiegel and Russian media outlet iStories looked into the relationship of Tikhonova, and Zelensky, who is a professional ballet dancer.
The report showed that the couple have secretly been living together in Munich, Germany, and even have a two-year-old daughter together.
A dancer herself, Tikhonova was known for her skills in acrobatics, although she is now the deputy director of the Institute for Mathematical Research of Complex Systems at Moscow State University.
She was previously married to Kirill Shamalov, Russia’s youngest billionaire, but the pair split in 2017.
Around that time, according to the report, she started dating the leading professional ballet dancer.
The report notes that Tikhonova was constantly flying from Moscow to Munich to be with her partner from 2017 to 2019.
But the war in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed from the West against Russia must mean that she has been forced to stop travelling.
The report notes: “She lived in Russia, and her daughter’s father lived in Germany, where he directed the Bavarian State Ballet. His name is Igor Zelensky.”
And adds: “By the end of 2019, Katerina Tikhonova, apparently tired of constantly flying to Munich, and decided to move in with her partner.“
About Zelensky, the report reveals that “there were rumors in the ballet world about the artistic director’s “cool disposition” and his reputation as a ‘bad guy’”
According to the report, Zelensky’s contract with the Bavarian Ballet was supposed to end in 2026, however the dancer announced his departure from the theater in April, staging for family reasons.