Putin ‘continuing to bully Ukraine’ says Petro Rewko
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Vladimir Putin is one of the world’s most mysterious figures. He continues to cause worldwide fear as Western nations warn a Russian invasion of Ukraine could still happen at any time. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said this morning that Putin still poses a serious threat and there is not yet any evidence of a withdrawal of troops from positions near the Ukrainian border.
He told LBC: “Russia has the size of forces now gathered and at readiness, locked and loaded to some extent, ready to go should they wish to do so.”
Though Putin denies plans for an invasion, his ruthless, unpredictable nature continues to alarm opposition leaders.
Mystery dates right back to Putin’s childhood, with details of his upbringing strikingly difficult to come by.
Russian-born Vera Putina first saw Putin on television in 1999, and has been convinced ever since that he is her estranged son.
Speaking to The Telegraph in 2008, she said: “I used to be proud of having a son who became President of Russia.
“Since the war, I am ashamed.”
Russia had occupied the Georgian city of Gori at the time of the interview as conflict raged on about the breakaway state of South Ossetia.
Vera claimed Putin’s father was Russian mechanic Platon Privalov, who got her pregnant whilst married to another woman. She claimed her son, nicknamed ‘Vova’, was born on October 7, 1950 — two years before his official birth date as per the Kremlin.
She alleges he lived in the Georgian village of Metekhi, and local records indicate that a Vladmir Putin was registered at a nearby school between 1959 and 1960.
When Vera married Georgian soldier Giorgi Osepahvili, he pressured her to abandon her son, and she sent him back to his grandparents in Ochyor, Russia.
Shura Gabinashvili taught Russian at the village school in Metekhi. She told The Telegraph that she had given him Russian language lessons between 1958 and 1960.
She said: “He loves Russian fables and Russian was his favourite subject. He also liked fishing and wrestling.
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“He was the shortest child in the class but he always wanted to win at everything.”
Yet their story is at odds with Moscow’s official version of events. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin press secretary, told The Telegraph: “The story is not true. It does not correspond to reality at all.”
Reality, they claim, is that Putin was born as the youngest of three children of Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin and Maria Ivanovna Putina.
His mother was a factory worker and his father was a conscript in the Soviet Navy, and served in the submarine fleet in the early Thirties.
His father served in the Soviet Army in World War 2, and Putin has previously said that his father was severely wounded by grenade fragments in 1942.
Putin claimed in a 2018 documentary that his paternal grandfather, Spiridon Putin, served as Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin’s cook.
They were both in their forties when Putin was born, a gap of over 15 years since the births of previous sons, Oleg and Viktor, both of whom died in their early childhood.
Putin’s quasi-autobiography ‘First Person’ states he was born in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) and started school there in September 1960.
Vera believes that Putin’s St Petersburg-based ‘parents’, as referred to in his autobiography, adopted her son from his grandparents.
When Telegraph reporter Kate Weinberg asked her how she first recognised Putin in 1999, almost 40 years after last seeing him, she said: “Do you think I would not recognise my son?”
However, photo-fit experts in Moscow remain unconvinced that the black and white photograph Vera has of her ‘son’ is the current Russian President.
Vera admitted that she is no longer willing to discuss the subject to the media, but urged Putin to disprove her story, saying: “I am ready to do a DNA test if he is.”
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