The private life of Putin – who is the man behind the iron curtain?

Putin with his parents - they were hard-working but poor. File photo / Getty Images

Of all the qualities required for being an effective spy, two surely sit right at the top of the deck: the ability to take on the appearance of whatever people want you to be; and a talent for knowing when to keep schtum – especially on the subject of yourself.

Vladimir Putin, it's no surprise to learn, was an effective spy, even if he was known for taking risks. He grew up dreaming of working as a secret agent, was the son of a member of the secret police, and joined the KGB straight out of college. Over 16 years in the security service, he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The nature of that start to life meant that eight years later, when the diminutive Putin was elected prime minister, then president, of the biggest country on the planet, nobody was quite sure who he was or where he had come from. Like any good agent, he could write his own backstory.

A quarter of a century on, time in which Putin has travelled from unknowable political fledgling to czarist global pariah, certain convenient aspects of his myth have become calcified, but the majority remains cloudy. More than any world leader, we still see only what he wants us to see.

Here is a fact: Putin was born in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) in October 1952, five months before the death of Josef Stalin. After that things get trickier, as the primary source for most anecdotes is Putin himself.

Vladimir Putin and former Olympic gymnast Alina Kabayeva, who he is rumoured to be in a relationship with. Photo / Getty Images

His grandfather, Spiridon Putin, was a cook for Lenin and Stalin, while his father, Vladimir Snr, served in the secret police during World War II. Once, his son said, Vladimir Snr escaped the Nazis by hiding underwater and breathing through a hollow reed, like James Bond.

Putin's father, a member of the Communist Party, later became a factory worker. His mother, Maria, did various menial jobs. Young Vladimir (or Volodya, as his parents knew him) had two much older brothers who both died, one shortly after birth, the other in the Siege of Leningrad.

Here is the first major question mark. In the early noughties, a Georgian woman, Vera Putina, claimed she was Putin's real mother. Her story was vivid – involving an affair, adoption and the nickname "Vova" – but the Kremlin strongly denied it. Two overseas journalists who were digging deeper died unexpectedly.

By all accounts, including his own, Putin was a small and slight child, who grew up poor, with parents who worked most hours. He was spoilt and insolent. A primary school teacher remembered him as "not working to his full potential."

At home, the Putins' Soviet apartment block was infested with rats, which provided him with an education of sorts. In a quasi-autobiography, First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait, published when he emerged as a world leader, he wrote about driving one into a corner.

During judo training at a St Petersburg school in 1971. File photo / Getty Images

"It had nowhere to run. Suddenly it lashed around and threw itself at me. I was surprised and frightened. Now the rat was chasing me. Luckily, I was a little faster and I managed to slam the door shut in its nose. There, on that stair landing, I got a quick and lasting lesson in the meaning of the word cornered."

Putin was an angry young man (he once recalled deliberately running a man over in a fit of road rage), and was picked on by bigger boys until he devoted himself to judo, which quickly became his favourite sport. In 1976, in what may have been his first media appearance, Leningrad's evening paper celebrated 23-year-old "judoist Vladimir Putin", who had won a competition.

"Fifty years ago, the streets of Leningrad taught me one thing: If a fight's inevitable, you must strike first," he said in 2015. He now holds various martial arts black belts, and is never shy to take on an opponent for a photo opportunity.

After a law degree, he was offered a job with the KGB in 1975, and began working in counter-intelligence, including in Dresden. A few years later, he met Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Ocheretnaya, an air stewardess, and married her in 1983.

Vladimir Putin with his wife Lyudmila and daughter Maria. File photo / Getty Images

"I became friends with Lyuda, my future wife," he once wrote, in what may be the least romantic passage ever penned. "I understood that if I didn't marry for another two or three years, I would never marry. Though, of course, I had made a habit of leading a bachelor's life. Lyudmila uprooted it."

They went on to have two daughters, Maria and Yekaterina, who – save for a few childhood snaps – were kept private until relatively recently. They reportedly attended a German-language school in Moscow and St Petersburg State University under assumed names, but have never been formally recognised as the president's daughters.

"I'm proud of them, they continue studying and they work," he said in 2015. "My daughters speak fluently three European languages." According to various news reports, Maria is now 36, a scientist, and married to a Dutchman.

Yekaterina, now 35, was formerly an acrobatic rock n' roll dancer, but is now also a scientist. She is married to businessman Kirill Shamalov, the son of one of Putin's friends, and recently took part in a televised discussion in Russia. The appearance suggested she may be stepping out of the shadows, but there was still no mention of her unofficial father, despite a remarkably strong family resemblance.

This is largely how Putin appears to conduct his private life: with fierce privacy, unless he can control it. When, in 2013, he eventually separated from Lyudmila after 30 years of marriage, the announcement was made via a suspected staged vox-pop after a ballet. "This is our joint decision," Putin said.

British Queen Elizabeth II receiving Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin at Windsor Castle. Photo / Getty Images

His wife, who had only truly served two years as an active first lady, joining him on overseas visits such as to meet the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, agreed. Putin continued: "We practically don't see each other. Each one had his and her own life." Lyudmila has reportedly since remarried Artur Ocheretny, who chairs The Centre for the Development of Inter-Personal Communications, a non-commercial foundation she helped set up.

Since then, Putin has kept quiet about his romances. There is a rumour that he has a third daughter, Luiza Krivonogikh, with former cleaner Svetlana Krivonogikh. Luiza was an active figure on Instagram, exhibiting a plush international lifestyle, but suddenly stopped posting last October. Other lovechildren have been alleged but never confirmed.

For the past decade, it has been reported that Putin is in a relationship with – and maybe even fathered children with – a former Olympic gymnast called Alina Kabeava. She recently made a rare TV appearance wearing a ring on the fourth finger of her right hand, as married Russians do, raising eyebrows across all 11 of the country's timezones.

Vladimir Putin as Mayor St. Petersburg with Hans-Juergen Krupp. File photo / Getty Images

An Italian journalist once deigned to ask him about it. "I have always reacted negatively to those who with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies prowl into others' lives," Putin replied, stonily. The spy did not like being spied upon.

Much else about his life before or since rising to be leader of Russia is a mystery, though we do get occasional glimpses. He has a sprawling property portfolio, including the $1.5 billion Black Sea estate dubbed "Putin's Palace". Photographs published by Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation showed he has a marble swimming pool, a hookah lounge with a pole for dancing, a casino, a wine cellar, a theatre, and busts of the Greek gods.

Then there are his superyachts, the latest of which is a £73 million (NZD$145 million), 240ft vessel called 'Graceful'. This week, it was tracked leaving the shipyard in Hamburg where it was being refurbished and arrived in Kaliningrad on Wednesday. The same day, a yacht owned by Putin's old KGB friend, Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, was reportedly boarded by the Norwegian coastguard.

Putin is a vain man, if the shirtless horse-riding photographs don't make that clear. Inevitable ageing appeared to cease around 2010, when his somewhat goblin-like visage turned rigid and practically lunar. At the time, a joke did the rounds in Moscow: "In response to the charge that there are no new faces in Russian politics, Vladimir Putin got plastic surgery."

He supposedly rises late, takes a breakfast of an omelette or porridge with quail's eggs, drinks coffee, works out, swims laps, then might dress in one of his bespoke Italian suits (Kiton and Brioni are favourite labels), before getting to work late in the afternoon. He then powers on through the night, and doesn't drink alcohol.

Taciturn to the West, partly due to a seemingly deliberate reluctance to use his competent grasp of English in public, he can occasionally come across as almost folksy to his people. He once spoke of loving the works of Ernest Hemingway and Jules Verne, as well as various Russian writers.

He is also musical, to a point: at a charity event in St Petersburg in 2010, he both played the piano and sang Fats Domino's Blueberry Hill before an audience that included a whooping Goldie Hawn, an admiring Gerard Depardieu, and an alarmed Kevin Costner. Putin barely smiled throughout.

Vladimir Putin dances with his classmates Elena, during a party in Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1970. Photo / Getty Images

Generally, he projects strength, and only strength. The childhood myth he has woven is all about overcoming adversity and fighting to make it. As a politician, toughness and patriotism are all he wishes to be known for.

He releases photographs of himself in nature, exploring Mother Russia, or playing ice hockey, or hunting. He walks with a KGB "gunslinger" stride – supposedly a hangover from Soviet training, one arm swings freely, the other rigid and close to where his sidearm would be. Enemies are punished, often theatrically.

And none of this is accidental. In 2018, re-election posters bore the slogan: "Strong president, strong Russia." Most politicians wish to be seen as firm, but they also want to be seen as human. To Putin, being human – being fallible – is a weakness, and "the weak are beaten." He has written his backstory; the question now is whether anybody can stop him.