Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly dismayed by his elder son’s fondness for Disney cartoons and the fact he likes to pretend to be the different characters.
According to a source who spoke to the Dossier Center, a project launched by Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Putin “did not succeed in protecting his children from Western influence,” because his son Ivan Vladimirovich enjoys Disney.
Ivan is the Russian leader’s elder son and brother to Vladimir Vladimirovich Jr. They are the two sons Putin is believed to have had with his mistress Alina Kabaeva.
Putin had said in January 2024 that “your head will fall off” from watching “modern Western-made cartoons”, and that Soviet cartoons “are of a completely different quality”, adding that they have “both emotional and aesthetic impact” and “a completely different impact on the developing person,” the Dossier Center reported.
Alexei Nikolsky/Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
This didn’t stop Ivan from “pretending to be” various Disney heroes in a fondness of the cartoons, “to the dismay of his parents,” the report added.
It also noted how the children “have to play mostly alone or with adults” and “see their parents only late at night, and their peers—mainly on holidays.”
The report also referred to the speculation from the start of the war that Putin and the former Olympic gymnast had more children, but confirmed they only had two sons together.
The sons and their mother are thought to be in the western town of Valdai, the report states, although the Kremlin has denied any affiliation of the Russian leader with the former Olympic gymnast.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment.
The Dossier Center report states that “the relationship between Putin and Kabaeva, like the entire personal life of the President of Russia, is one of the main state secrets.”
The center also disclosed that the sons of the gymnast can’t be found in state databases because they are being treated as “spies and people under state protection.”
Per the information given to the center from a source, the boys live a life which “resembles that of the father,” as they have personal chefs and only drink a personally allocated mug each. The boys also have bodyguards and have their own cars with drivers.
The publicly recognized family of Putin includes his now ex-wife Lyudmila Shkrebneva, who he married in 1983, and their two daughters Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova. Putin divorced his wife in 2014, according to the BBC.
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