We never knew that Vladimir Putin had a daughter, but yes, it turns out the Russian president has two. And his oldest, Mariya Putina, 29, is in a spot of trouble as she has been forced to flee the apartment she lives with in The Hague in The Netherlands, with her Dutch boyfriend, Jorrit Faasen.
The reason why is pretty convoluted, so we’ll keep it short. After Malaysian Airways flight MH17 was shot out of the sky – allegedly by pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists – many of the bodies of the international fliers have not been returned to their home countries for burial. It's become an international dispute, where Putin is refusing to agree with commentators' concerns that the plane was shot down by weapons the Kremlin provided. A lot of the people on board the tragic flight were Dutch – 193 out of 298. Seeking retribution for the deaths of their friends, family and countrymen, some Dutch people are now calling for Putin’s daughter to be deported from the country.
Though a lot of the calls came from users on social media, it got a lot more serious as Pieter Broertjes, the mayor of Hilversum, where the bodies (a total of 90 have arrived from Ukraine) are due to be counted, told a radio station: ‘We could also deport Putin’s daughter, she lives in The Netherlands. Then you’ve got a whole different signal you could give.’
He later apologised on Twitter, saying his comments were ‘not wise’ and ‘stemmed from a feeling of helplessness that many would recognise.’ However, this didn’t stop Mariya’s address being posted on the social networking site.
A local resident near their riverside apartment in Voorschoten told The Mirror that Mariya hadn’t been spotted for a while: ‘We have not seen her here since the plane went down. She moved in last year and it was all kept quiet for a while. But once it became known who she was, there was certainly some disquiet. And now this has happened. She is obviously not responsible for her father’s actions but we don’t want ¬demonstrations around here.’
Her whereabouts are now unknown. Saying that, she has always been a mysterious person – first off, we had no idea she existed until this report that she’s disappeared. Second of all, her and her 27-year-old sister, Ekaterina, have never been photographed by the press and assumed pseudonyms at college to maintain their anonymity. And with a dad who has a £40bn fortune and properties around the world, it’s likely that she’s tucked up somewhere relatively safe.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.