A karting championship featuring Vladimir Putin’s grandson has been moved from Crimea over fears he could be killed, as the ten-year-old is pictured for the first time.
The Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula was attacked last month for the first time since the Russian president ordered his troops into Ukraine in February.
A major strike on Saki military airfield meant a race involving Putin’s half-Dutch grandson Roman Faassen was shifted from resort Yevpatoria to faraway Chechnya.
The boy, aged ten, currently sits in 28th place in the mini class of the Russian karting championships.
Faassen is the son of 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 red, white and blue flags of both Russia and The Netherlands on his belt. His kart only displays the name of Russia.
Pictured: Roman Faassen, Vladimir Putin’s grandson, removes his helmet while taking part in a Karting race in Tatarstan, Russia, in August 2022. A championship he we set to take part in earlier in August was moved from Crimea after the peninsular was attacked by missiles
Soon after the explosions on 9 August, reported as being the work of Ukrainian special services, a decision was taken to move the race to a safer location.
The re-arranged race is scheduled for 9 September.
Roman – representing Moscow in the competition – has so far raced five times this season 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.
Before the war in Ukraine began, the Crimean peninsular has been a popular holiday destination for Russians ever since it was annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Many thought it was too far from the Ukrainian mainland for it to be targeted. However, in August this was proven not to be the case when multiple strikes destroyed military targets on the island.
While Ukraine did not officially take responsibility for the attacks, the blasts suggest Kyiv has attained long-range missile capabilities previously not through possible.
Roman Faassen (pictured centre driving a go-kart) aged ten, currently sits in 28th place in the mini class of the Russian karting championships. Roman displays the red, white and blue flags of both Russia and The Netherlands on his belt. His kart only displays the name of Russia
A major strike on Saki military airfield (pictured) meant a race involving Putin’s half-Dutch grandson Roman Faassen was shifted from resort Yevpatoria to faraway Chechnya
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.
‘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.
Faassen is the son of Putin’s eldest daughter Maria Vorontsova (centre), 37, from her first marriage to Dutch businessman Jorrit Faassen, the son of a NATO colonel. Pictured: Vorontsova is seen with her reported second husband Yevgeny Nagorny (left) at friends’ wedding in 2019 in Salerno, Italy
Maria Vorontsova (pictured), 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
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 Center 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.
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, no relation of 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.
Putin also has another daughter Luiza Rozova (pictured), 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
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.’