Manfred Mohab, vice president of legal affairs for the World Rock 'n' Roll Confederation (WRRC), told Reuters that he knows Katerina Tikhonova from their work together on the organization's presidium. According to the agency, when asked whether he knew Tikhonova was the daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mohab answered in the affirmative.

The journalists spoke with the WRRC vice-president on the sidelines of the European Acrobatic Rock 'n' Roll Championship in Moscow. As the agency writes, Mohab said that this sport is developing thanks to Russia. "We have an expansion project that works on all continents and in many countries. And all this comes from Russia," Reuters quotes him as saying.

Reuters writes that the Kremlin press service did not respond to requests for comment. Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov did not respond to Vedomosti's request to comment on Reuters' report. The press service of the Innopraktika project promised to answer the question later.

Later, Mohab himself told Vedomosti that the dialogue with the journalist took place in a very noisy room and he misunderstood the question. "I couldn't say that because I can't confirm what I don't know," he noted. Mohab claims that he knows Tikhonova, but hasn't spoken to her for a long time, and she has never told him anything about her family.

In 2015, Reuters reported that Putin's youngest daughter Katerina has the surname Tikhonova, runs the Innopraktika project at Moscow State University, and heads the international committee of the All-Russian Federation of Acrobatic Rock 'n' Roll. The agency claimed that Gazprombank Chairman of the Board Andrei Akimov told journalists that he knew that Innopraktika was run by Putin's daughter (Akimov is on the project's board of trustees) . After the publication, the bank's press service said that Akimov was "very surprised that journalists from such a reputable publication allowed not just a distortion of what was said, but an outright fabrication." In turn, Reuters said that Akimov spoke to journalists on the record. The agency denied claims that the banker's words were misinterpreted.

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Politics / Social Policy

During the Direct Line in June 2017, Putin said that his daughters “don’t interfere in anything, don’t get involved in politics, live normal, ordinary lives” and are involved in science and education . “As for the grandchildren, some of them are already going to kindergarten,” he added. Putin refused to disclose other details. “ I don’t want them to grow up as some kind of ‘princes of the blood’, I want them to grow up as normal people. For this, they need normal communication, ordinary communication in children’s groups. As soon as I say their age and name now, they will be immediately identified, they will not be left alone, this will simply harm the child’s development,” he explained.

Reuters: Rock 'n' Roll Confederation Answers Question About Relationship Between Katerina Tikhonova and Putin