A karting championship featuring Vladimir Putin’s grandson has been moved from Crimea over fears he might be killed as the 10-year-old is pictured for the first time.
The Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula came under attack last month for the first time since the Russian president ordered his troops into Ukraine in February.
A major attack on the Saki military airfield meant a race involving Putin’s semi-Dutch grandson, Roman Faassen, was moved from the resort of Yevpatoria to distant Chechnya.
The ten-year-old boy is currently 28th 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 Russia and the Netherlands on his belt. His kart only shows the name of Russia.
Pictured: Roman Faassen, grandson of Vladimir Putin, takes off his helmet as he takes part in a kart race in Tatarstan, Russia, in August 2022. A championship we planned to attend in early August was moved from Crimea after the peninsula was attacked by rockets
Shortly after the August 9 explosions, reportedly caused by Ukrainian special services, a decision was made to move the race to a safer location.
The rearranged race is scheduled for September 9th.
Roman – who represents Moscow in the competition – has ridden five times this season so far in the Chechen capital of Grozny, Zelenograd, twice in Ryazan and also in the village of Bogatye Saby near Kazan, Current Time reported.
Yevpatoria is about 21 km from the flashed Saki military airbase.
Before the start of the war in Ukraine, the Crimean Peninsula had been a popular holiday destination for Russians since its annexation by Moscow in 2014.
Many thought it was too far from mainland Ukraine to attack. In August, however, that was not the case when multiple attacks destroyed military targets on the island.
While Ukraine has not officially claimed responsibility for the attacks, the blasts suggest Kyiv has gained long-range missile capabilities not previously possible.
At the age of ten, Roman Faassen (in the middle of the picture driving a go-kart) is currently in 28th place in the mini class of the Russian Kart Championships. Roman displays the red, white and blue flags of Russia and the Netherlands on his belt. His kart only shows the name of Russia
A major attack at the Saki military airfield (pictured) meant a race involving Putin’s semi-Dutch grandson Roman Faassen was moved from the resort of Yevpatoria to distant Chechnya
Putin refuses to talk about his family members, but admitted in 2017: “I have grandchildren. They live a normal life… I want them to grow up to be normal people.
“If I give their ages and names, they will be identified and never left alone.”
Vorontsova, 37, a pediatric endocrinologist, is the daughter of Putin and his ex-wife Lyudmila, previously Russia’s 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, who were intending to attend a doctor friend wedding in 2019, which they attended near Salerno, Italy.
Faassen is the son of Putin’s eldest daughter Maria Vorontsova (center), 37, from her first marriage to Dutch businessman Jorrit Faassen, the son of a NATO colonel. Pictured: Vorontsova is seen with her alleged second husband Yevgeny Nagorny (left) at friends’ wedding in 2019 in Salerno, Italy
Maria Vorontsova (pictured), 37, a pediatric endocrinologist, is the daughter of Putin and his ex-wife Lyudmila, previously the First Lady of Russia. 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 on rare genetic diseases in children.
She is a senior researcher at the National Medical Research Center of Endocrinology of the Ministry of Health of Russia. She is also an expert on dwarfism.
Roman’s father worked for a long time 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-flying “rock ‘n’ roll” dancer who married Russia’s youngest billionaire Kirill Shamalov, 40, son of a close friend of Putin.
But the marriage broke up, and Katerina began a relationship with ballet star Igor Zelensky, who is not a relative of the President of Ukraine.
Putin also has another daughter, Luiza Rozova, a 19-year-old heiress also known as Elizaveta Krivonogikh, from a previous relationship with cleaning lady and multi-millionaire Svetlana Krivonogikh, 47, now a partner in 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 cleaning lady and multi-millionaire Svetlana Krivonogikh, 47, now a partner in 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.
Speculations that he has a family with rhythmic gymnast and media mogul Alina Kabaeva, 39, have been officially denied but the rumors persist.
Putin has previously said: “I have a private life in which I do not allow interference. It has to be respected.’ He pityed “those who invade the lives of others with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies”.
Kabaeva says on record that she met a man who “I love very much,” and enthuses, “Sometimes you feel so happy that you’re even scared.”
