
One of the most controversial figures of recent days on the French cultural scene is a young woman who works as a manager of two well-known art galleries in Paris, but who independent media and artists in exile identify as Elizaveta Vladimirovna Krivonogikh, the alleged daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The revelation has caused great controversy among artists who are engaged in the war in Ukraine. Elizaveta, known by the pseudonym "Liza Rudnova", is a manager at the "L" association, which runs two Parisian galleries, Studio Albatros and L Gallery.
These galleries have become exhibition spaces for Russian and Ukrainian artists who have spoken out against the war in Ukraine and the Kremlin regime. This fact, for many, makes the presence of someone suspected of being the daughter of one of the architects of the war unacceptable.
The first public denunciation came from the Russian artist in exile, Nastja Rodionova, who, through a Facebook post, confessed that she had heard rumors about the true identity of "Liza Rudnova".
She says she verified this information through a meeting with the president of the "L" association, Dmitry Dolinskij, who confirmed to her that the manager's name was Elizaveta Rudnova, a name that many independent media outlets associate with Putin's secret daughter.
According to a 2020 investigation by the Russian investigative platform Proekt, Elizaveta was born on March 3, 2003, and is the daughter of Svetlana Krivonogikh, a former cleaner from St. Petersburg who is said to have been a long-time intimate partner of Vladimir Putin.
Since then, Krivonogikh has become the owner of luxury resorts, a shareholder in Bank Rossiya, and the owner of real estate in Moscow and on Kamennyy Island, a fortune estimated by the media at over $100 million. Previous investigations have revealed that Elizaveta has been using the pseudonym Rudnova since 2010, a surname that may be a homage to Putin's close friend Oleg Rudnov, who died in 2015.
In 2023, Ukrainian television station TSN reported that Elizaveta studied at the ICART School of Management and Art in Paris using a passport with the surname Rudnova, the same date of birth and phone number as Krivonogikh.