Vladimir Putin ‘wanted to splurge £24m’ on strange sport played by his daughter

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War aggressor Vladimir Putin once wanted to spend £24million on an acrobatic rock’n’roll centre for his daughter.

The Russian President's youngest had a senior role in the development of the sport, Reuters revealed in 2016, and so the leader wanted to splash the cash to build a centre for the activity. The Zhavoronki Acrobatic Rock’n’Roll Center was proposed to be built on the western outskirts of Moscow, making it the only specialised facility in the world for the sport.

Katerina Tikhonova, Putin's daughter, competed several times in acrobatic rock'n'roll, a form of dance that’s performed as a couple or as a group. At the time, the Moscow city construction department stressed that the facility would be used for other sports as well as the niche dance.

“Moscow attaches great importance to building sports facilities. Over the past five years in Moscow the number of new sports facilities being brought on-stream has effectively doubled,” the department told Reuters. In 2016, the sport only had around 9,000 people who actively participate in Russia.

Tikhonova, 35, has never admitted to being the daughter of Putin – but it’s widely thought that she is. It has been suggested, too, that the former dancer would become Putin’s successor.

Would you give the sport a go? Let us know in the comments section.

“Trying to run a woman through an election campaign in Russia is quite an interesting and modern political experiment,' wrote Natalia Gevorkyan, one of Putin’s biographer. “Putin does not have a (male) heir – at least officially – but he has two daughters, and one of them, Ekaterina, has already entered the public space with several huge and costly projects.

“In 2024, Ekaterina will be 38. In theory, she can take part in the presidential elections and provide a calm time in old age for her father and his closest friends.”

Putin has been condemned from leaders the world over for waging war on Ukraine. He ordered his military to invade the country on 24 February. Peace talks so far have proved fruitless as Europe endures its biggest escalation of warfare since World World Two.

• Vladimir Putin
• Space
• Military
• Russia

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