Report Links Putin's Purported Daughter To Landmark Russian Cancer Center Project

Maria Vorontsova, the purported elder daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, spoke to the state-owned Russian television station Rossia 1 station in early July.

A woman reported to be the elder daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin has been identified as a co-owner of a company that has a state tender to build what is planned to be Russia's largest oncology center, according to a July 24 BBC report.

The Russian Service of the BBC reported that Maria Vorontsova, who has been identified by Russian media as Putin's daughter, controls 20 percent of a company called Nomeko, which was founded in January.

Each of the five founding owners, including Vorontsova, invested 100,000 rubles ($1,600).

Nomeko's role in the $634 million project under construction outside of St. Petersburg is unclear, but the BBC report said it might take over management of the state-of-the-art center, which is scheduled to be opened by 2021.

The complex will be able to hold up to 20,000 patients and should be capable of carrying out up to 10,000 operations annually. It will include an oncology center, a nuclear-medicine center, and a rehabilitation complex.

The insurance company Sogaz, which is partially owned by Putin insider and banker Yury Kovalchuk, is a major investor in the project, the BBC reported. Vladislav Baranov, the managing director of the Sogaz subsidiary SogazMedicine, is also a co-owner of Nomeko.

Vorontsova made a rare appearance on Russian state television on July 23.

Putin has always been secretive about his family life, and the Kremlin has not confirmed the identities of either of his two daughters.

Putin's elder daughter, Maria, was born in 1985, and his second daughter was born the following year. Putin's divorce from his wife, Lyudmila, was finalized in 2014.

Putin's younger daughter has been identified as Yekaterina Tikhonova, an acrobatic rock 'n' roll dancer.

In 2015, Russian media identified her as the head of a company that is developing a $1.7 billion, publicly funded, innovation center at Moscow State University

According to a 2016 report by the independent magazine The New Times, Vorontsova, 33, graduated with honors from Moscow State University's Department of Fundamental Medicine in 2011.

With reporting by the BBC, The Moscow Times, Vedomosti, and The New Times