Highly Hypocritical: Kremlin-Connected Children Grew up in Societies Their Parents Claim to Reject
With private jets, luxurious Parisian apartments, English ski vacations and schooling at gentry universities in New York, the children of the Kremlin are enjoying a princely world in European countries their parents declared enemies.
Their properties and prime real estate are in the classiest avenues of Europe's capitals, and their social media profiles are filled with red-carpet dresses and events.
Despite the tense relations with the west, and after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia officials still believe their children should grow up and be educated in the arms of America and Europe.
‘Extreme Hypocrisy’
I hate you but I can’t stop loving you, this is the case of the Kremlin kids and their parents who publicly rail against the West, but they agree their kids grow up in the very countries whose societies they claim to reject.
They believe Russian relations with these countries have nothing to do with their children’s studies and their classy apartments.
Daniel Treisman, a professor specializing in Russian politics at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that “it is obviously extreme hypocrisy.”
They may not even see a contradiction," Treisman added.
"They believe that there's this competition between the US and Russia, but why should that affect their daughter's educational plans? Or where they have their chateaus?"
In a speech last month, Putin himself criticized Russians who may adopt Western mentality and align with the West, accusing them of working with the "collective West" to achieve one goal: "the destruction of Russia."
"The Russian people will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and simply spit them out like a gnat that accidentally flew into their mouths," Putin said.
Meet Them
The family of Dmitry Peskov, who is Vladimir Putin's deputy chief of staff and chief spokesman, is among the popular families of alleged corruption and hypocrisy.
Dmitry Peskov is Putin's loudest megaphone dispensing the Russian President's hardline vitriol against the West if not every day.
The United States has recently sanctioned Peskov, his wife and his two adult children, saying the family lives “luxurious lifestyles that are incongruous with Peskov's civil servant salary and are likely built on the ill-gotten wealth of Peskov's connections to Putin.”
Two of his children grew up in Western Europe and returned to Moscow as adults.
While the US Treasury didn't clarify “the questionable excesses,” Peskov reportedly made a fortune of $173,000 in 2020.
According to an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Foundation founded by jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Peskov is enjoying a high-flying life; he went on a honeymoon including a more than $400,000-a-week yacht off the coast of Sardinia, in addition to his designer watch which costs $600,000.
Based on property records, and traffic violation database, the Anti-Corruption Foundation also revealed that his wife, and his ex-wife in addition to his children have luxury cars and homes costing millions of dollars all over the world at a time when nearly 20 million Russians are living in poverty.
According to experts, this inexplicable wealth of such families in the world of Putin could only be “kleptocracy.”
“A kleptocracy is merely a government that is ruled by thieves, where the policies and decisions made are on behalf of those thieves,” said Georgetown University professor Jodi Vittori, an expert on corruption and global policy.
Feeling Better in Europe
To obscure their wealth, there is a complicated web of fake companies, offshore banks and camouflaged transactions, making it complicated to trace where funds are coming from.
According to CNN, the wealth collected by Russian kleptocrats is often spent in Western economies.
"They want to live in the West because the richest countries in the world are in the West. The amazing centers of culture are in the West," said Treisman.
"But in addition, Western countries have a much more secure rule of law than Russia. So, if they're able to get a lot of their money into the West, they can feel more secure."
But Russian officials' hypocrisy has been an open secret in Russia for years. In 2016, a bill was proposed to the State Duma banning minor children of most of Russia's officials to study in foreign universities, “claiming domestic education would be key to becoming true patriots,” however, the bill didn't pass, CNN reported.
Elizaveta, Peskov's daughter, is 24 years old; her everyday social media posts have become the fodder of Russian and European news, and her luxurious life hasn't shied away from limelight or controversy.
She reportedly told a Russian TV outlet that she feels "better in the European environment" calling the education system in Russia a "true hell."
Elizaveta has recently contradicted her father's public statements by posting "no to war" to her Instagram stories; her post was used as a slogan by Russians opposing the war in Ukraine.
