Putin and his Kremlin clique are rolling out their own kids at the 'Russian Davos'
Children of Russian elites are addressing the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's low-profile daughters are slated to speak at the event.
Russia's flagship economic event used to attract high-profile international attendees before the Ukraine war.
It's the time of the year for the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum — or the "Russian Davos," as it's sometimes called.
For years, Russian President Vladimir Putin's flagship business and investment event has attracted the world's elites, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
This list of high-profile world leaders has become substantially shorter since Russia invaded Ukraine, triggering sweeping sanctions against Putin's regime.
This year, the biggest names attending the event include Bolivian President Luis Arce and Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
But the four-day economic forum, which started on Wednesday, now also features the children of the Kremlin's top echelons, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
The nepo babies in attendance include Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova, Putin's low-profile daughters.
Vorontsova, a 39-year-old endocrinologist, is representing the Russian Association for the Promotion of Science. She is slated to speak about bioeconomics.
Meanwhile, 37-year-old Tikhonova, who heads the Innopraktika center — backed by state-owned companies — is slated to join a panel to speak about the military-industrial complex.
Other Kremlin offspring addressing the event include Ksenia Shoigu, the daughter of the former defense minister, who is slated to moderate a panel, and Kremlin Chief of Staff Anton Vaino's son, Alexander, per Bloomberg.
The second generation of Putin's inner circle appears to be stepping up now that their elders are aging; the Russian leader himself is 71 years old. However, the reason could also be tied to self-preservation in the authoritarian system, Ekaterina Schulmann, a political scientist at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, told Bloomberg.
"To be safe, you have to be in the system," Schulmann told the media outlet.
In the past, Russia's elite were able to send their kids overseas to hedge their risks should anything go awry at home. But sanctions and heightened scrutiny have made this option much more difficult now.
"Now that this opportunity has become harder, the way to protect themselves is to appoint their children as bosses," Schulmann told Bloomberg.
Putin is scheduled to address the economic forum on Friday.
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