Putin’s DAUGHTER ‘is behind campaign to bring down foreign minister Sergei Lavrov as she tries to bring an end to Ukraine war’

Vladimir Putin’s daughter is reportedly behind a campaign to oust Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who is trying to end the war in Ukraine.

Reports last week showed that the president has sidelined Lavrov, 75, who has been one of his staunch allies over the years and has been in charge of foreign policy for more than two decades.

The Kremlin was forced to deny that Putin had fallen out with the minister. “Lavrov is of course working as foreign minister,” a spokesman said, giving a moderate vote of confidence.

However, Putin’s former speechwriter Abbas Gallyamov announced that his second daughter, 39-year-old Katerina Tikhonova, planned to sink Lavrov in order to end the war in Ukraine, which started when Russia launched an invasion in 2022.

Lavrov ‘maintains his role’ despite not attending the security council session and being removed from his post as head of the Russian delegation at the G20 meeting in South Africa.

Gallyamov said: ‘Rumors about Lavrov were already circulating six months ago. Serious sources said that Katerina Tikhonova spoke to Putin many times and said that Lavrov was making things worse.’

The foreign secretary blamed Donald Trump for refusing to agree to a summit with Putin in Budapest last month. He is believed to have upset US Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a ‘disastrous’ phone call in September.

According to reports in the Russian media, he was also accused of ‘sabotage’ by some Kremlin officials after he refused to participate in the peace process. Russia was hit with major sanctions imposed by the United States shortly after Lavrov met with Rubio, amid speculation that authorities may have launched an investigation against the minister.

Tikhonova is said to have told Putin that Lavrov “was too aggressive and his hawkish cries prevented agreements from being reached.”

Gallyamov added: ‘Maybe Putin finally listened to his daughter? Moreover, he has a point. In fact, this is true; it gets in our way. It should have been replaced a long time ago. Lavrov is the foreign minister of your winning times.

Sergey Lavrov, who has been in charge of Russia’s foreign policy for more than two decades, is one of Putin’s staunch allies

Officials were forced to deny allegations that Putin had an extraordinary falling out with his top diplomat

‘Lavrov is the perfect diplomat to make a fuss when you win a war. But when you don’t win you have to be more reasonable and Lavrov is no longer capable of being that reasonable.’

In his statement to the Zhivoy Gvozd media, Gallyamov said that Putin and the foreign ministry are no longer seen as diplomats, but as ‘propagandists’.

There appears to be a conflict between Katerina’s best friend and business partner and 50-year-old Kirill Dmitriev, who is married.

Dmitriev is the head of the Russian sovereign wealth fund and is used by Putin as a back channel to the Trump administration, where he has contacts.

However, according to statements in Moscow, this upset Lavrov, who once personally removed the chair given to Dmitriev to get him out of the way before the US talks.

“Lavrov has become associated with a hardline attitude,” Gallyamov said. ‘He has long become something of a hawk, exacerbating conflicts rather than mitigating them.

‘And of course, in the current situation, when Putin is having problems reaching his ears and Trump is angry, Lavrov remains out of the picture. It’s not particularly needed.’

Meanwhile, Lavrov resurfaced after spending days away from the spotlight and accused the United States of reneging on promises made during Putin’s meeting with Trump in Alaska.

The war hawk told a state media outlet: ‘The Americans assured us at the time that Volodymyr Zelensky would not hinder the achievement of peace. Apparently some difficulties arose in this regard.

‘Moreover, as far as we know, Brussels and London are trying to persuade Washington to abandon its intention to resolve the crisis politically-diplomatically and fully engage in efforts to apply military pressure on Russia.’

If the allegation about Tikhonova is true, it shows her growing influence behind the scenes in Russia, but it also reflects the deep turmoil in Putin’s regime, which is under stress from failures in the nearly four-year war.

Some believe Putin may be grooming Tikhonova to succeed him as president

Putin with his family – his second daughter Tikhonova (left) is backing one of Putin’s top allies to take over from him

Gallyamov has previously claimed that he could groom Katerina, the second of Putin’s three known daughters, as his eventual successor.

He is said to be backed by Mikhail Kovalchuk, 78, a close friend of Putin, the dictator’s anti-aging guru and head of the Kurchatov Institute, Russia’s leading nuclear institute.

Tikhonova, head of the Innopraktika Institute in Moscow, has begun attending conferences and television programmes, but not on a large scale, and so far Putin has insisted that his children, believed to be five, are not public figures.

He is seen as the unofficial integrator of all high-tech companies in Russia and plays a role in evading sanctions on behalf of his father’s regime.

Gallyamov said earlier this year: “The circle around the president’s daughter, Katerina Tikhonova, has every chance, given time, to seize power in the country.” ‘This isn’t the worst-case scenario, but of course things can change.

‘They are not war enthusiasts, but they do not criticize it openly.

‘[Their] The idea is that Russia should advance its interests through soft power rather than waging wars.’

Katerina is married to 56-year-old ballerina and artistic director Igor Zelensky, who was previously head of the Bavarian State Ballet. This means her married name is Ms. Zelensky.

He made regular secret trips to Munich by private jet, accompanied by state guards.

Tikhonova performing in May 2014. He has now begun appearing at conferences and TV stations across the country.

It is known that Kim Kardashian prefers the beauty drug ‘Vampire Facelift’.

Katerina’s blood was drawn, then processed and injected back under the skin in a treatment costing £4,310 per session.

According to reports, she also had Botox procedures and hyaluronic acid injections to treat frown lines on her forehead and laugh lines around her mouth.

She was previously married to Russia’s youngest billionaire, Kirill Shamalov, now 43, and the son of one of Putin’s close friends.