Vera Putina is a woman who has since 1999 stated that Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...

 ("Vova") is her lost son. The woman's claims contrast with Putin's official biography, which states that Putin's parents died before he became president. The Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...

concluded that while the woman's might be simply wrong or part of public relations effort, the story "identifies the holes in the known story of Mr Putin's past. The official line is that Mr Putin's parents were already in their forties when Mr Putin was born, which leaves a gap of over fifteen years since the births of their previous sons, Oleg and Viktor, neither of whom survived childhood. Details of the first ten years of Mr Putin's life are scarce in his autobiography, especially when compared with other world leaders."

Putina lives in the village of Metekhi, about 18 kilometers from Gori, Georgia

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

. Putina says that Putin's father is a Russian mechanic, Platon Privalov, who got Vera pregnant while he was married to another woman. A "Vladmir Putin" was registered at Metekhi school in 1959-1960. Records show that his stated nationality is Georgian.

Vera married a Georgian soldier Giorgi Osepahvili. Her husband pressured Vera to abandon Putin.
In December 1960 she delivered "Vova" back to his grandparents in Russia. Putina believes that the St. Petersburg-based "parents" referred to in Putin's official biography adopted her son from his grandparents.

Through her contacts, she learnt that Putin had become a KGB officer. In 1999 she spotted Putin in television.
Putina says that Russian and Georgian people visited her village to pressure her remain silent. Schoolteacher who says she taught Putin stated that she too had been threatened. Putina says she is ready to do DNA tests.

Russian journalist Artyom Borovik

Artyom Borovik

Artyom Genrikhovich Borovik was a prominent Russian journalist and media magnate. He was the son of a Soviet journalist, Genrikh Borovik, who worked for many years as a foreign correspondent in the U.S.-Journalism:...

's plane crash coincided with the documentary he was making about Putin's childhood, including a report about Vera Putina. Italian journalist Antonio Russo

Antonio Russo

Antonio Russo was an Italian journalist who was murdered while covering the Second Chechen War.As a foreign correspondent for Radio Radicale, Russo had previously covered conflicts in Algeria, Burundi, Rwanda, Colombia, Bosnia, and Kosovo...

was reportedly also interested in Vera Putina before he was murdered.

External links

• Putin's mama - A documentary released in 2003.
• Vera Putina - Article by Anticompromat.