100 Vladimir Putin Facts: How Much Money Does Russian President Have? Net Worth Forbes, Age, Wife, Kids, Bio, Wiki, Salary, Etc

Who is Vladimir Putin? How rich is Putin? What is the salary of the president of Russia? Here is everything to know about Putin.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who is the president of Russia, a position he has filled since 2012, and previously from 1999 until 2008.

He was also the prime minister from 1999 to 2000, and again from 2008 to 2012. He is currently serving his second term as the President of Russia, which began in 2012.

Former Russian government adviser Stanislav Belkovsky recently estimated his fortune to be worth around $US70 billion ($A97.4 billion) and makes a salary of $187,000 per year, while the US hedge fund manager Bill Browder told The Washington Post it was more like $US200 billion ($A278.4 billion).

The Russian leader, Vladimir Putin is rumored to own multiple homes, fleets of yachts, cars, and even secret presidential palaces worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

Since Putin is reportedly worth $200 billion, he is, therefore, the richest person in the world? That would mean he is one of the 10 richest human beings who ever lived, after adjusting for inflation.

How did Putin make his money? What is the salary of the president of Russia? How many billionaires are there in Russia? Does Putin have kids? How old is Putin? Who is Putin’s wife now? Read till the end of this article for answers to these and more search queries.

Vladimir Putin’s Profile Summary

Early Life

#1. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born on October 7, 1952, in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (what is now Saint Petersburg).

#2. His mother Maria was a factory worker, and his father Vladimir Spiridonovich was a conscript in the Soviet Navy.

#3. He began practicing the martial arts of Judo and sambo at age twelve and is a Judo black belt.

#4. Having studied German at Saint Petersburg High School 281, he speaks German fluently.

#5. Putin studied Law at Leningrad State University (not Saint Petersburg University), graduating in 1975. It was while at university that he met Anatoly Sobchak, co-author of the Russian constitution, who was an assistant professor that taught business law. He was greatly influential in Putin’s career.

Political Career

#6. After earning a law degree, Putin’s career in politics began with a 16-year stint serving in the KGB. He trained at the 401^st KGB school in Okhta, Leningrad. After working monitoring foreigners and consular officials in Leningrad, he was sent to Moscow for further training at the Yuri Andropov Red Banner Institute in 1984.

#7. Following that, under the cover identity of a translator, he served in Dresden, East Germany from 1985 to 1990.

#8. He relocated to Leningrad after the collapse of the Communist East German government, reconnecting with Anatoly Sobchak while at his post at the International Affairs section of Leningrad State University.

#9. Putin claims that on the second day of the 1991 coup attempt against then-President Mikhail Gorbachev, he resigned from the KGB because he did not agree with what had happened and no longer wished to be part of the intelligence operation of the new post-coup administration.

#10. Sobchak, his former professor, soon became the Mayor of Leningrad, and Putin was appointed as head of the Committee for External Relations of the Mayor’s Office. From there, he continued to build his political career through various political and governmental positions.

#11. In July 1998, then-President Boris Yeltsin appointed Putin as Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), which is the successor to the KGB and the primary intelligence and security organization of the Russian Federation.

#12. He was appointed acting Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation by Yeltsin on August 9, 1999, and later that day Putin agreed to run for the presidency after Yeltsin stated his desire to see Putin as his successor. His first Presidential term lasted from 2000 – to 2008.

#13. Putin was also Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 – 2000 and again from 2008 – 2012.

#14. Over the years Putin has earned a very controversial reputation. He is frequently criticized by other world leaders and political experts for his handling of human rights and foreign policy issues.

#15. Many westerners have called the circumstances under which he has continued to hold office in Russia “undemocratic”.

#16. Still, Putin has been fairly popular among the Russian people ever since taking over as President in 1999 following the surprise resignation of Boris Yeltsin.

Public Image

#17. His public image is fairly unique for a politician, largely characterized by his “macho” outdoorsy image. Putin cultivates an outdoor, sporty, tough guy public image, demonstrating his physical prowess and taking part in unusual or dangerous acts, such as extreme sports and interaction with wild animals, part of a public relations approach that, according to Wired and ABC News.

#18. He has been famously shirtless on several occasions or engaging in various dangerous and extreme sports. For example, in 2007, the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda published a huge photograph of a shirtless Putin vacationing in the Siberian mountains under the headline: “Be Like Putin.” 

#19. Numerous Kremlinologists have accused Putin of seeking to create a cult of personality around himself, an accusation that the Kremlin has denied.

#20. Some of Putin’s activities have been criticised for being staged; outside of Russia, his macho image has been the subject of parody.

#21. Putin is believed to be self-conscious about his height, which has been estimated by Kremlin insiders at between 155 and 165 centimeters (5 feet 1 inch and 5 feet 5 inches) tall but is usually given at 170 centimeters (5 feet 7 inches).

#22. There are many songs about Putin, and Putin’s name and image are widely used in advertisement and product branding. Among the Putin-branded products are Putinka vodka, the PuTin brand of canned food, the Gorbusha Putina caviar, and a collection of T-shirts with his image.

#23. In 2015, his advisor Mikhail Lesin was found dead after “days of excessive consumption of alcohol”, though this was later ruled an accident.

#24. He is also famous for his “Putinisms”, aphorisms that come from his unique use of the Russian language (similar to how George W. Bush is famous for his malapropisms here in the United States). One example of a “Putinism” occurred during an interview with American journalist Larry King, who asked him what happened to a Russian submarine that had been lost in an explosion – Putin answered simply, “she sank”.

Who is Putin’s wife now and how many children does he have? (Family/Personal Life)

#25. On 28 July 1983, Putin married Lyudmila Shkrebneva, and they lived together in East Germany from 1985 to 1990.

#26. They have two daughters, Mariya Putina, born 28 April 1985 in Leningrad, and Yekaterina Putina, born 31 August 1986 in Dresden, East Germany.

#27. An investigation by Proekt Media published in November 2020 alleged that Putin has another daughter, Elizaveta (known as Luiza Rozova), born March 2003, with Svetlana Krivonogikh.

#28. In April 2008, the Moskovsky Korrespondent reported that Putin had divorced Lyudmila and was engaged to marry Olympic gold medalist Alina Kabaeva, a former rhythmic gymnast and Russian politician. The story was denied and the newspaper was shut down shortly thereafter. 

#29. Putin and Lyudmila continued to make public appearances together as spouses, while the status of his relationship with Kabaeva became a topic of speculation. 

#30. In the subsequent years, there were frequent unsubstantiated reports that Putin and Kabaeva had multiple children together, although these reports were denied.

#31. On 6 June 2013, Putin and Lyudmila announced that their marriage was over, and, on 1 April 2014, the Kremlin confirmed that the divorce had been finalised. 

#32. In 2015, Kabaeva reportedly gave birth to a daughter; Putin is alleged to be the father. 

#33. In 2019, Kabaeva reportedly gave birth to twin sons by Putin.

#34. Putin has two grandsons, born in 2012 and 2017.

#35. His cousin, Igor Putin, was a director at Moscow-based Master Bank and was accused in a number of money laundering scandals.

Publication Recognition

#36. In 2007, he was the Time Person of the Year. 

#37. In 2015, he was No. 1 on the Time’s Most Influential People List.

#38. Forbes ranked him the World’s Most Powerful Individual every year from 2013 to 2016.

#39. He was ranked the second most powerful individual by Forbes in 2018.

Official government residences

#40. As president and prime minister, Putin has lived in numerous official residences throughout the country.

#41. These residences include the Moscow Kremlin, Novo-Ogaryovo in Moscow Oblast, Gorki-9^[ru] near Moscow, Bocharov Ruchey in Sochi, Dolgiye Borody^[ru] in Novgorod Oblast, and Riviera in Sochi.

#42. In August 2012, critics of Putin listed the ownership of 20 villas and palaces, nine of which were built during Putin’s 12 years in power.

Personal residences

#43. Soon after Putin returned from his KGB service in Dresden, East Germany, he built a dacha in Solovyovka on the eastern shore of Lake Komsomolskoye on the Karelian Isthmus in Priozersky District of Leningrad Oblast, near St. Petersburg.

#44. After the dacha burned down in 1996, Putin built a new one identical to the original and was joined by a group of seven friends who built dachas nearby. In 1996, the group formally registered their fraternity as a co-operative society, calling it Ozero (“Lake”) and turning it into a gated community.

#45. A massive Italianate-style mansion costing an alleged US$1 billion and dubbed “Putin’s Palace” is under construction near the Black Sea village of Praskoveevka.

#46. In 2012, Sergei Kolesnikov, a former business associate of Putin’s, told the BBC’s Newsnight programme that he had been ordered by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin to oversee the building of the palace. 

#47. He also said that the mansion, built on government land and sporting 3 helipads, a private road paid for from state funds and guarded by officials wearing uniforms of the official Kremlin guard service, has been built for Putin’s private use. 

#48. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed Kolesnikov’s allegations against Putin as untrue, saying that “Putin has never had any relationship to this palace.” 

#49. On 19 January 2021, two days after Alexei Navalny was detained by Russian authorities upon his return to Russia, a video investigation by him and the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) was published accusing Putin of using fraudulently obtained funds to build the estate for himself in what he called “the world’s biggest bribe.”

#50. In the investigation, Navalny said that the estate is 39 times the size of Monaco and costs over 100 billion rubles ($1.35 billion) to construct.

#51. It also showed aerial footage of the estate via a drone and a detailed floorplan of the palace that Navalny said was given by a contractor, which he compared to photographs from inside the palace that were leaked onto the Internet in 2011.

#52. He also detailed an elaborate corruption scheme allegedly involving Putin’s inner circle that allowed Putin to hide billions of dollars to build the estate.

Pets

#53. Putin has received five dogs from various nation leaders: Konni, Buffy, Yume, Verni, and Pasha. Konni died in 2014.

#54. When Putin first became president, the family had two poodles, Tosya and Rodeo. They reportedly stayed with his ex-wife Lyudmila after their divorce.

Religion

#55. Putin is Russian Orthodox.

#56. His mother was a devoted Christian believer who attended the Russian Orthodox Church, while his father was an atheist. Though his mother kept no icons at home, she attended church regularly, despite government persecution of her religion at that time.

#57. His mother secretly baptized him as a baby, and she regularly took him to services.

#58. According to Putin, his religious awakening began after a serious car crash involving his wife in 1993, and a life-threatening fire that burned down their dacha in August 1996. 

#59. Shortly before an official visit to Israel, Putin’s mother gave him his baptismal cross, telling him to get it blessed. Putin states, “I did as she said and then put the cross around my neck. I have never taken it off since.”

#60. When asked in 2007 whether he believes in God, he responded, “… There are things I believe, which should not in my position, at least, be shared with the public at large for everybody’s consumption because that would look like self-advertising or a political striptease.”

#61. Putin’s rumoured confessor is Russian Orthodox Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov. However, the sincerity of his Christianity has been rejected by his former advisor Sergei Pugachev.

Sports

#62. Putin watches football and supports FC Zenit Saint Petersburg. 

#63. He also displays an interest in ice hockey and bandy.

#64. Putin has been practicing judo since he was 11 years old, before switching to sambo at the age of fourteen. He won competitions in both sports in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). He was awarded eighth dan of the black belt in 2012, becoming the first Russian to achieve the status. 

#65. Putin also practices karate. 

#66. He co-authored a book entitled Judo with Vladimir Putin in Russian, and Judo: History, Theory, Practice in English (2004). 

#67. Benjamin Wittes, a black belt in taekwondo and aikido and editor of Lawfare has disputed Putin’s martial arts skills, stating that there is no video evidence of Putin displaying any real noteworthy judo skills.

Personal wealth

#68. Vladimir Putin has always been a bit of a thorn in our wealth-tracking sides. According to his official Russian asset disclosure forms, Putin’s net worth is relatively minimal, considering his power.

#69. Official figures released during the legislative election of 2007 put Putin’s wealth at approximately 3.7 million rubles (US$150,000) in bank accounts, a private 77.4-square-meter (833 sq ft) apartment in Saint Petersburg, and miscellaneous other assets. 

#70. Putin’s reported 2006 income totaled 2 million rubles (approximately $80,000). In 2012, Putin reported an income of 3.6 million rubles ($113,000)

#71. Putin has been photographed wearing a number of expensive wristwatches, collectively valued at $700,000, nearly six times his annual salary. Putin has been known on occasion to give watches valued at thousands of dollars as gifts to peasants and factory workers. Putin’s close associate Arkady Rotenberg is mentioned in the Panama Papers, pictured 2018.

#72. According to Russian opposition politicians and journalists, Putin secretly possesses a multi-billion-dollar fortune via successive ownership of stakes in a number of Russian companies.

#73. In his most recent disclosure, Putin claimed his assets were $180,000 in a savings account, a few Russian-made automobiles, and a 16,000 square foot plot of land in the Moscow suburbs.

#74. Putin’s wife Lyudmila reportedly controls a bank account valued at $260,000. In total, they claim their combined net worth is less than $500,000.

Vladimir Putin – $70 Billion Fortune / Dan Istitene/Getty Images

#75. Many Russian insiders believe Putin has used his power over the last decade to build large, hidden ownership stakes in several multi-billion dollar commodity firms. In 2013, one of his most vocal critics asserted that these secret stakes would give Putin a net worth of $40 – $70 billion. That’s quite a big difference from “less than $500,000.” But it turns out, $70 billion may even be a gross underestimate.

#76. As of this writing, $70 billion would make Putin the seventh-richest person on the planet, behind Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, Bernard Arnault, Amancio Ortega, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos.

#77. The Russian leader is rumoured to own multiple homes, fleets of yachts, cars, and even secret presidential palaces worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

Vladimir Putin’s Secret $200 Billion Dollar Fortune

#78. A prominent Russian finance expert named Bill Browder announced on CNN that he believes Putin is worth at least $200 billion. Browder is a hedge fund manager who, until recently, was the largest foreign investor in Russia.

#79. Browder explained his reasoning: “The first eight or 10 years of Putin’s reign over Russia, it was about stealing as much money as he could. And some people, including myself, believe that he’s the richest man in the world…with hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth that was stolen from Russia.“

#80. When pressed to estimate his approximate net worth, Browder responded: “I believe that it’s $200 billion. After 14 years in power of Russia, and the amount of money that the country has made, and the amount of money that hasn’t been spent on schools and roads and hospitals and so on, all that money is in property, bank–Swiss bank accounts–shares, hedge funds, managed for Putin and his cronies.“

#81. On how Putin maintains power: “The power is very simple in Russia–whoever has the power to arrest people is the person in power. And so what Putin does is he has a bunch of guys around him who have the power to arrest people. And so it doesn’t matter how rich you are, if you can be arrested, put in jail, and have your money taken away, the guy who can do that to you is the most powerful person in Russia.“

Forbes’ Top theories on how Putin made his money

#82. A recent investigation by Forbes has uncovered three main theories into how Mr. Putin amassed his multibillion-dollar fortune.

#83. One theory relates to a Russian oligarch named Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was once believed to be the richest man in Russia with an estimated $15 billion fortune.

#84. In 2003, he was imprisoned on charges of fraud and tax evasion, accusations which he has continually denied.

#85. It is widely accepted that Mr. Putin was behind Mr. Khodorkovsky’s imprisonment, with his arrest coming just months after he criticised the Russian leader over state corruption during a meeting.

#86. Mr. Khodorkovsky’s fortune was frozen and his hugely successful company was broken up.

#87. Mr. Browder believes Mr. Putin may have used this arrest to cut deals with all the other wealthy Russian oligarchs. “The deal was, ‘You give me 50 percent of your wealth and I’ll let you keep the other 50 percent,’” Mr. Browder told Forbes. “If you don’t, he’ll take 100 percent of your wealth and throw you in jail.”

#88. Browder described Putin to the US Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017 as “one of the richest men in the world”. “I estimate that he has accumulated $200 billion of ill-gotten gains from these types of operations over his 17 years in power,” Mr. Browder said.

#89. The second theory is that Mr. Putin grew his wealth by using his government influence to help his close friends and family earn money.

#90. Forbes suggests that those in his inner circle then offer him cash or stakes in the companies they acquire as a result of his help.

#91. Many of the Russian leader’s childhood friends and close allies have gained a vast amount of wealth over the years.

#92. For example, his former son-in-law Kirill Shamalov became a billionaire at 34 after being allowed to borrow money from private banking company Gazprombank so he could buy a 17 percent stake in the company Sibur from one of Mr. Putin’s friends, Gennady Timchenko.

#93. Another one of Mr. Putin’s friends, Arkady Rotenberg received more than $7 billion in various state contracts in the lead-up to the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

#94. The third and final theory is known as the Bluster Model, according to Forbes.

#95. This theory explores the possibility that Mr. Putin actually doesn’t have vast amounts of mysterious wealth and, instead, just likes people to think he does.

#96. Bloomberg columnist Leonid Bershidsky suggested that the Russian President actually has no need for personal wealth when he wields such power.

#97. “He has the whole country at his beck and call,” Bershidsky wrote in 2013.

#98. “It is enough for Putin to snap his fingers, and state-owned companies will cede assets to his friends at bargain-basement prices. A whisper from him, and wealthy private businessmen will chip in for the lavish refurbishment of a presidential residence.”

Vladimir Putin’s Social Media Accounts

#99. Instagram: Not Known

#100. Twitter: @KremlinRussia_E