The Kremlin said on Thursday (April 7) it was bewildered by a US decision to impose sanctions against President Vladimir Putin's adult daughters, describing them as the "extension of an absolutely rabid position on the imposition of restrictions" on Russia.
Mr Putin's daughters, who US officials believe are hiding their father's wealth, were among those targeted in the latest round of sanctions announced by the Biden administration on Wednesday against Moscow over its military intervention in Ukraine.
The two women targeted were Ms Mariya Putina and Ms Katerina Tikhonova, both of whom are the Russian leader's children from his marriage to Ms Lyudmila Putina, a former Aeroflot flight attendant whom he divorced in 2013.
The divorce was reported to be the first for a Russian leader since Peter the Great in 1698.
Mr Putin has been staunchly protective of his family and the identities of his daughters have never been confirmed by him or the Kremlin amid speculation over the number of children the Russian leader has fathered.
Ms Tikhonova was born in Dresden, Germany, in 1986 while Mr Putin was working as a KGB spy. She uses the surname of her maternal grandmother, and studied at St Petersburg State University and Moscow State University. She has a master's degree in physics and mathematics.
She also has a passion for Japanese culture and acrobatic rock 'n' roll dancing (videos of her performances can be seen on YouTube). In 2013, she and her dance partner came in fifth in the world championships in Switzerland.
It was footage from her dance competitions, compared with pictures from the website of Moscow State University where she works, that helped to first establish in 2015 that Ms Tikhonova was Mr Putin's daughter. There are claims in Moscow that Mr Putin is grooming her as his eventual successor.
In 2013, Ms Tikhonova married Mr Kirill Shamalov, the younger son of Mr Nikolai Shamalov, a confidant of Mr Putin and co-owner of Rossiya Bank, which the US government has described as "the personal bank" of top Kremlin officials.
Ms Tikhonova and Mr Kirill Shamalov, who has already been sanctioned, divorced in 2018 but there are no public details of any financial settlement. An investigation by Reuters in 2015 estimated that the couple had corporate holdings worth more than US$2 billion (S$2.7 billion), as well as a luxury £4 million (S$7.1 million) beachfront villa in the south-western French resort of Biarritz.
Ms Tikhonova worked in various roles at Moscow State University before being appointed in 2020 as the head of its new US$1.7 billion "artificial intelligence issues and intellectual systems" institute at the university. Mr Putin has previously described the Innopraktika centre as "one of the most essential tools in the national strategy of developing AI technology".
Ms Tikhonova's elder sister Mariya Putina, 36, is a paediatric endocrinologist studying the effects of hormones on the body.
Ms Putina married the Russian-born Dutch businessman Jorrit Faassen in 2013, and they lived in a penthouse of an exclusive apartment building in Amsterdam.
In 2014, some Dutch neighbours called for her to be expelled from the country after the downing of Malaysia Airlines MH17 by pro-Russia forces over Ukraine. Recently a group of Amsterdam residents appealed to Ms Putina to plead with her father to end the invasion of Ukraine.
Speculation is rife that Mr Putin's third - and even more secret - daughter is the result of an affair with Ms Svetlana Krivonogikh, 47, who is now a part-owner of a major Russian bank. She is said to have worked as a cleaner in a shop as a teenager before going to university. Her daughter is 18-year-old Luiza Rozova, a student in St Petersburg.
The Russian leader is also rumoured to have at least one other child with former Russian Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva.
The secrecy surrounding Mr Putin's personal life extends to his wealth. There are rumours he might be the world's richest man.
Officially, he earns an annual salary of US$140,000. He has publicly disclosed assets of an 800 sq ft (around 74 sq m) apartment, a trailer, and three cars. But some experts believe his assets total up to US$200 billion.
Mr Putin is rumoured to own a US$1.4 billion mansion along the Black Sea. He is also said to own 19 houses, 700 cars, 58 aircraft and helicopters.
In March, Fortune magazine said that Mr Putin had been pictured wearing the Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar watch worth US$60,000 and that he owns a US$500,000 A. Lange & Sohne Tourbograph as well as other fancy timepieces.
