While Putin fights the "collective West" and wages war, his own children have been surrounded by Western educators since early childhood. They are tasked with training the boys from the earliest years to a linguistic level of "educated Europeans". The family has spent and continues to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on maintaining this staff.
Putin awards Kabaeva the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" IV degree, 2005. Photo: kremlin.ru
Investigative journalists from the "Sistema" project gained access to documents and correspondence from the period 2017-2026 concerning the hiring of foreign specialists for the upbringing of the sons of Vladimir Putin and Alina Kabaeva. Most of this information is contained in emails to a mailbox used by Alesia Fedina and Kateryna Halavachova — Alina Kabaeva's cousins.
Journalists claim that they verified the accuracy and plausibility of the obtained information in several ways and contacted the individuals mentioned in the correspondence. Two of them confirmed the information presented in the documents.
According to the documents, matters related to hiring foreign governesses and teachers for Putin's younger children are handled by Fedina and Halavachova. The former acts as a family representative and conveys wishes regarding the educational process, while the latter oversees financial and organizational issues.
The names of the parents for whom governesses are actually hired are not disclosed in either the documents or the correspondence: they are referred to in the third person, called "the family" or "the parents." The counterparts of Kabaeva's sisters in the correspondence are employees of offshore companies linked to the family, Kabaeva's assistants, other legal companies, and agencies for selecting elite staff.
Features of upbringing
According to information from earlier investigations, Putin and Kabaeva have two joint children — Ivan, born in 2015, and Vladimir, born in 2019.
The family began looking for foreign educators back in 2017, when Ivan was not even two years old. By 2018, three-year-old Vanya's schedule included English and German, as well as music.
As can be seen from the transcript of Alesia Fedina's meeting with governesses in 2019, by the age of four, Ivan was supposed to be constantly immersed in a "language bath". His English speech was supposed to be coherent, like "the language of an educated European". Similar requirements were set for learning German.
Governesses not only taught language but also cared for the child: for instance, English teacher Amanda S. was simultaneously tasked with immersing three-year-old Vanya in the language environment and ensuring that the potatoes on his plate were mashed and the broth completely covered the pasta.
In 2019, governesses were already preparing the boy for school. However, as the authors note, there is currently no information that any of Putin's children attended a public school with other children.
In recent years, tutors were hired for Vanya's younger brother, Vova. In correspondence and documents from 2021-2022, he was referred to as "little one" — the boy was not yet three years old at the time.
As a rule, approximately 4-6 people worked with one child at a time: some simultaneously, others alternating. Employers referred to governesses as "Brits" or "Germans" among themselves, depending on the language they taught. The governesses had an extensive task: to create a linguistic environment for the child and engage him in activities in a playful way.
Christmas card to parents for Catholic Christmas 2018. Photo from one of the governesses' reports. Source: svoboda.org
Who are the educators
As the authors claim, over the past eight years, at least 20 foreign governesses and tutors have worked for the family of the president and former Olympic champion. Among them are citizens of Great Britain, South Africa, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, and Ireland. "Sistema" knows the names, surnames, and passport data of all these employees, but the editorial board does not disclose them for personal data protection reasons.
Journalists note that they were only able to find information about one Russian teacher, Polina T., who taught Ivan music and introduced him to works by Sergei Prokofiev and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, among others.
Working conditions
Journalists also reviewed a dozen and a half contracts that were sent to prospective employees for signature over the years. The document bears the names of the parties: typically, it is the employee themselves and Alesia Fedina in the role of employer.
Some clauses of this agreement are entirely logical for the staff of a wealthy family: ensuring the educational process, not drinking or smoking at work, monitoring the ward's appearance and medication intake, and also not discussing work with third parties or publishing anything about it on social media.
During working hours, the use of gadgets is prohibited (unless necessary for learning), as is unarranged photo and video recording. Staff must dress neatly and not use perfume or deodorants with a strong scent.
Some conditions are quite strict and reveal specific family concerns — especially regarding health.
Thus, an employee who signed the contract is obliged to undergo a medical examination. This check-up should more or less comply with the norms of Russian laws on examinations required for working with children, but additional tests may be added if necessary. Employees undergo an examination once a year (usually at the "Sogaz" clinic in St. Petersburg) and each time an employee leaves the workplace and returns.
It is very undesirable to be sick on this job. The employer pays for only six days of sick leave per six months. If it turns out that an employee has an infectious disease or any other illness that could affect their work for more than three weeks, the governess can be dismissed with one day's notice.
The employee is provided with an apartment or a hotel room. The employer warns that another person may be moved into the apartment (or room) at any time. The only thing the employer guarantees is a separate room for each employee and a separate toilet with a shower. Staff are paid for phone, gas, electricity, and internet, excluding subscriptions to streaming channels and personal international calls.
Putin's residence in Valdai. Photo: proekt.media
In the correspondence studied by "Sistema," "village" or "forest" are mentioned several times: clearly, this refers to life near the presidential residence in Valdai. Employees are paid for travel to the residence from Moscow or St. Petersburg (tickets to Uglovka railway station), as well as tickets to Sochi if the family moves there. Independent trips to the city from the "family complex" are impossible.
Each educator's contract specifies strict limitations on certain topics:
"Never impose your religious, political, or ideological views on the Ward. Do not touch upon topics of sexual relationships or sexual education without prior agreement with the Employer. Under no circumstances discuss topics related to LGBT."
In addition, governesses are required to fill out daily reports on the time spent with the child. These reports span several pages of detailed activity lists, with photos and examples. Separately for little Vanya, teachers filled out a whole "tracker" of achievements.
Child development tracker used by Putin's children's educators. Photo: svoboda.org
Remuneration
Each employee signs two employment contracts.
The first, which details the living and upbringing conditions of the descendants, is signed with the employer — a family representative. As a rule, this is Alesia Fedina. The child in this contract is referred to as the "Ward". In one of the documents, dated 2019, the ward is named: "Ivan Fedin". In reality, Alesia Fedina's son has a different name.
This agreement also specifies the employee's actual salary. The amount is individual for everyone and depends on personal arrangements, but the order is approximately the same. For instance, in 2019, the payment for educating "Ivan Fedin" was 1400 euros for 40 hours of work per week. Later agreements feature similar amounts: for example, 1500 British pounds for 60 hours of work per week.
Vanya. April 2019. Photo from the educator's report. Source: svoboda.org
The foreigner concludes a second contract with a Russian legal entity: "Institute for Professional Retraining of the International Medical Center 'Sogaz'" (less frequently — with MMC "Sogaz" itself). The position indicated in this employment contract is "leading translator". Such official employment is necessary for family employees to obtain work permits and visas in Russia as "highly qualified specialists" (HQS).
HQS status does not merely allow a foreigner to obtain a residence permit: for such a specialist, the employer company pays almost no social contributions to the budget. The official salary indicated in the contract of most governesses with "Sogaz" was 167 thousand Russian rubles per month for 2020 (approximately $2300-2500 at that time). This was then the minimum salary that allowed migration authorities to approve HQS status.
In most cases, employees received the rest of their salary to a Russian account from the same company: simply, the larger part of the salary was officially paid as a "bonus," and its amount depended on the number of actual working days, sick leaves, holidays, and so on.
Journalists reviewed payment statements and calculated that for August 2022, five employees were paid approximately $31,800 to official Russian accounts alone — this amount does not include money that might have been given in cash or transferred to foreign accounts.
Calculation of payments for August 2022. Greek letters (Alpha, Omega, and others) are code names for governesses, used for accounting payment accruals. Photo: svoboda.org
In 2020, plans for staffing nannies for the near future were discussed in correspondence. According to Halavachova's estimate, the family planned to employ 5-6 staff members with salaries of about $7000, which would cost a minimum of $30,000 monthly, or about $400,000 annually.
As the investigators claim, as of January 2026, at least three foreign nannies were working for the Putins' family: citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina Sofia B., citizen of Germany Irene E., and citizen of South Africa Carol R. In total, they were paid over $45,000 in January (excluding possible additional payments). Judging by the bank statements available to "Sistema," Carol R. alone earned over $30,000 between January and May 2026.
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