People

Twelve figures around Vladimir Putin — his parents and his mentor Sobchak, the predecessor who chose him and the successor who kept his seat warm, the ministers who execute his policy, and the opponents who paid the highest price. Each entry states the relationship and the documented facts.

Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin (1911–1999) — father

A World War II veteran who served in the Soviet Navy’s submarine fleet, later a foreman in a Leningrad factory. Putin has spoken of his father’s war wounds and strictness; the details come from Putin’s own account in First Person.

Maria Ivanovna Shelomova (1911–1998) — mother

A Leningrad factory worker who survived the Siege of Leningrad. Putin has described her devoutness — she had him secretly baptized as an infant — and her death from cancer in 1998, a year before he became prime minister.

Lyudmila Putina (born 1958) — former wife

A former Aeroflot flight attendant whom Putin married in 1983; their daughters were born in 1985 and 1986. The couple announced their divorce in a joint television interview in June 2013. She has remained almost entirely out of public life since.

Anatoly Sobchak (1937–2000) — mentor

The reformist law professor and first democratically elected mayor of St. Petersburg, who brought Putin into politics in 1990–1991. Putin called him his teacher and patron; after Sobchak’s 1996 defeat, Putin helped arrange his departure from Russia during a corruption investigation. Sobchak died of a heart attack in February 2000, weeks before Putin’s first presidential election.

Boris Yeltsin (1931–2007) — predecessor

Russia’s first president, who appointed Putin prime minister in August 1999, named him his preferred successor, and resigned on 31 December 1999, making Putin acting president. Putin’s first decree granted Yeltsin immunity. Yeltsin died in April 2007.

Dmitry Medvedev (born 1965) — successor and prime minister

A former law colleague from St. Petersburg who served as Putin’s chief of staff and first deputy prime minister, then as president 2008–2012 while Putin was prime minister. After 2012 Medvedev served as prime minister until January 2020, when he became deputy chairman of the Security Council.

Sergei Lavrov (born 1950) — foreign minister

Foreign minister since March 2004, the public face of Russian diplomacy through the Georgia war, the Syria intervention, and the Ukraine conflict. His longevity in the post is itself a statement about continuity in Putin’s foreign policy.

Sergei Shoigu (born 1955) — defense minister, then Security Council secretary

Minister of Emergency Situations from 1994, then defense minister from November 2012 to May 2024 — overseeing the military through Crimea, Syria, and the first two years of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In May 2024 he became secretary of the Security Council.

Alexei Navalny (1976–2024) — opposition leader

The anti-corruption campaigner who became Putin’s most prominent domestic opponent. Poisoned in August 2020 (Western laboratories reported a Novichok-type agent; Russia denied involvement), imprisoned on his return in 2021, he died in a penal colony on 16 February 2024. Russian authorities attributed the death to natural causes; Western governments and his family alleged state responsibility. Each attribution is stated as such.

Yevgeny Prigozhin (1961–2023) — Wagner Group founder

A St. Petersburg restaurateur turned founder of the Wagner private military company, which fought in Syria, Africa, and Ukraine. In June 2023 he staged a brief armed mutiny against Russia’s military leadership before aborting it; he died in a plane crash on 23 August 2023.

Mikhail Mishustin (born 1966) — prime minister

A former tax-service chief appointed prime minister in January 2020. A technocrat rather than a silovik, he has managed the government’s economic policy through the pandemic and the sanctions era.

Igor Sechin (born 1960) — Rosneft chief

A former KGB colleague from St. Petersburg who served as deputy prime minister and is now CEO of the state oil giant Rosneft. Widely described by analysts as one of the most influential figures in Putin’s inner circle — an assessment, not a documented office.

A note on privacy

Putin’s daughters have been deliberately kept out of public life. This site does not profile them.

Source notes

• Family details: Putin’s account in First Person (2000); the Kremlin’s official biography.
• Offices and dates: presidential decrees and official announcements (see sources).
• Navalny: OPCW and government laboratory findings; Russian denials — each attributed (see domestic-policy).