Is Putin Grooming His Daughter to Succeed Him? Some Russians Think So

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 13 – The appearance of Vladimir Putin’s daughter on Russian television has prompted Pavel Lokshin, the Moscow correspondent of Germany’s Die Welt newspaper to raise the possibility that the Kremlin leader may be grooming her to be his successor, something that might allow him to remain in power while no longer in office.

            After the appearance of Katerina Tikhonova on TV, Russian visitors to YouTube, writers on Telegram channels, and bloggers “immediately” began to raise the possibility that the 32-year-old woman might assume the role of Russian president three years from now (welt.de/politik/ausland/article185355322/Russische-Spekulationen-Baut-Putin-Tochter-Katerina-zu-seiner-Nachfolgerin-auf.htm).

            Keeping senior positions within the family is a tradition not only in other post-Soviet states like Azerbaijan where the current president is the son of his predecessor, but in Russia as well, Lokshin says.  Thus, the new agricultural minister in Russia is the son of Nikolay Patrushev, secretary of Putin’s security council and former head of the FSB. 

            The Die Welt correspondent says that such speculation likely has no more foundation than the natural desire of Russians to figure out who will be their leader after Putin.  Many have predicted his departure and replacement in the past, Lokshin points out, and they have proved no more accurate than astrologers.

            Putin is likely to weather his current problems, the journalist continues; and while he is not as young as he used to be, he is not that old as world leaders go. When he finishes his current term in 2024, he will be 72, the same age as Donald Trump is now.  And if he wants to remain, he will almost certainly be able to find a way to arrange that.

            In another “succession” story, Putin himself told a meeting in Yaroslavl that when Boris Yeltsin proposed that Putin succeed him, Putin replied that he was “not ready.”   But Yeltsin replied that Putin was already “’a big boy’” who had worked in the power structures and could do the job (mk.ru/politics/2018/12/13/putin-ne-khotel-byt-prezidentom-kogda-elcin-predlozhil.html).