Vladimir Putin’s second daughter Katerina Tikhonova made a rare public apperance last week.
The scientists and former acrobat participated in a panel, where she discussed “the role of defense industry organizations in ensuring technological sovereignty” at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday.
Tikhonova is the leader of Moscow’s Innopraktika Foundation, an organization that hopes to grow investment in Russian technologies and create a network of tech companies, modelled on Silicon Valley, around Russia’s leading technological universities, per independent Latvian-based Russian outlet Novaya Gazeta.
Tikhonova spoke at length about a grant program that supports Russian manufacturers, which 35 of Russia’s largest companies, including Gazprom and Russian Railways, have joined.
The initiative is currently supporting 79 projects and has allocated a total of 354 billion rubles (€3.66 billion) to participating companies, per the independent Russian outlet.
According to the forum’s schedule, Putin’s eldest daughter, Maria Vorontsova, 39, was also slated to speak about her role as an executive officer for the Russian Association for the Promotion of Science.