President Vladimir Putin’s alleged extramarital daughter has quietly assumed a role in the French art world, working with galleries that exhibit anti-war artists, including some from Ukraine, exiled artist Nastya Rodionova reported Thursday.
Yelizaveta Krivonogikh’s presence in Paris was first reported by the Ukrainian media outlet TSN. The outlet found that she lives in the French capital with a second passport under the name Yelizaveta Olegovna Rudnova, despite her alleged father being sanctioned and wanted on war crimes charges in the West for the invasion of Ukraine.
The Paris-based L Association confirmed to Rodionova that a Yelizaveta Rudnova works as part of its management team. L Association’s galleries Albatros Studios and L Galerie are both known for showcasing contemporary artists with political and anti-war messages.
"It’s important to say that I believe in the presumption of innocence, and that children should not be held responsible for the crimes of their parents," Rodionova wrote.
"But, in the midst of a war, a conflict between someone from a family of beneficiaries of the regime and the victims of that regime is unacceptable. Did Liza understand this at 22, or does the responsibility lie with those around her?" she wrote.
Krivonogikh reportedly graduated in 2024 from the ICART school of arts and cultural management in Paris.
On a LinkedIn post for the ICART graduation exhibition in 2024, users left comments remarking that "Putin’s daughter" was among the graduates and noting her resemblance to the Russian president, Rodionova said.
Rodionova also wrote that she had seen Krivonogikh in person, but had not spoken with her.
The patronymic and surname on Krivonogikh's second passport suggest a link to the late St. Petersburg media executive Oleg Rudnov, who had been a longtime confidant of Putin until his death in 2015.
Investigative journalists have reported that properties tied to Krivonogikh’s mother, Svetlana Krivonogikh, were purchased under Rudnov’s name.
Svetlana Krivonogikh had been a cleaner living in a communal apartment in St. Petersburg before her reported relationship with Putin.
After her daughter’s birth in 2003, she acquired stakes in several companies, including a share in Rossiya Bank, and purchased high-end real estate in Moscow and on Kamenny Island in St. Petersburg, according to the Proekt investigative outlet. She also became a co-owner of the Igora ski resort in the Leningrad region and the Leningrad Center theater.
The Russian investigative outlet IStories reported that Svetlana Krivonogikh owns a luxury apartment in Monaco near the Monte Carlo Casino that overlooks the Mediterranean Sea.
In 2020, Proekt valued all her assets combined at 7.7 billion rubles, or roughly $100 million at the time.
The U.K. placed Svetlana Krivonogikh on its sanctions list in 2023, identifying her as "a shareholder in Bank Rossiya and the National Media Group, that consistently promotes the Russian assault in Ukraine."
The Kremlin’s spokesman in 2020 denied any connection between Putin and Svetlana Krivonogikh, stating that he had never heard of her.
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