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 bring down Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, as she attempts to end the war in Ukraine. 

Last week, reports indicated that the president had 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 working as foreign minister, of course,’ said a spokesman in a lukewarm vote of confidence.

But Putin’s former speechwriter Abbas Gallyamov has revealed that his second daughter, Katerina Tikhonova, 39, is looking to sink Lavrov in a bid to end the Ukraine war, which began in 2022 when Russia launched an invasion. 

Lavrov ‘remains in his role’ despite not appearing at a security council session and being stripped of his role as head of the Russian delegation at the upcoming G20 meeting in South Africa.

Gallymov said: ‘Rumours about Lavrov were already circulating six months ago. Serious sources said that Katerina Tikhonova had supposedly spoken to Putin repeatedly, saying that Lavrov was making things worse.’

The foreign minister was blamed for Donald Trump’s refusal 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 Russian media reports, he was also accused of ‘sabotage’ by some Kremlin officials after he refused to engage in a peace process. Russia was hit by huge sanctions imposed by the US shortly after Lavrov’s call with Rubio. 

Tikhonova is now said to have told Putin that Lavrov was ‘too aggressive and his hawkish screeching hindered the achievement of agreements.’

Gallyamov added: ‘Perhaps Putin finally listened to his daughter? And besides, she’s got a point. Strictly speaking, it’s true – he’s in the way. He should have been replaced long ago. Lavrov is a foreign minister for times when you’re winning.

‘When you’ve won a war, then Lavrov is the perfect diplomat to bluster. But when you can’t win, you need to become more reasonable, and Lavrov is no longer capable of such reasonableness.’ 

Putin and his foreign ministry were now seen as ‘propagandists’, not diplomats, Gallyamov told Zhivoy Gvozd media outlet.

A conflict is seen as swirling over Katerina’s favourite Kirill Dmitriev, 50, who is married to her best friend and business partner.

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

But this has upset Lavrov, who once personally removed a chair intended for Dmitriev ahead of US talks to get him out of the way, according to accounts in Moscow.

‘Lavrov has come to be associated with a hardline course,’ said Gallyamov. ‘He has long since become a kind of hawk who exacerbates conflicts rather than softens them.

‘And of course, in the current situation – when Putin has problems up to his ears and Trump is furious – Lavrov is out of the picture. He’s not particularly needed.’

Meanwhile, Lavrov has reappeared after days out of the limelight to accuse the US of reneging on promises made when Putin met Trump in Alaska.

The war hawk told a state media outlet: ‘At that time the Americans assured us that they would ensure that Volodymyr Zelensky would not obstruct the attainment of peace. Apparently, certain difficulties have arisen in this matter.

‘In addition, to our knowledge, Brussels and London are trying to persuade Washington to abandon the intention of resolving the crisis politically-diplomatically and to engage fully in efforts to apply military pressure on Russia’

If the claim about Tikhonova is true, it shows she is growing in sway behind the scenes in Russia, but also would reflect deep turmoil in the Putin regime under stress from its failures in almost four years of war.

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

She is said to be backed by close Putin crony Mikhail Kovalchuk, 78, the dictator’s anti-ageing guru, head of the Kurchatov Institute, Russia’s leading nuclear institute.

Tikhonova, head of the Innopraktika Institute in Moscow, has started making conference and TV appearances, but not on a large scale, and until now, Putin has insisted his children – he is believed to have five – are not public figures.

She is seen as an unofficial integrator of all high-tech companies in Russia, and plays a role in sanctions-busting on behalf of her father’s regime.

‘The circle around the president’s daughter, Katerina Tikhonova has every chance, given time, to seize power in the country,’ said Gallyamov earlier this year. ‘It’s not the worst-case scenario, though of course things could shift.

‘They are not war enthusiasts, although it’s clear they don’t openly criticise it.

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

Katerina is married to ballet dancer and artistic director, Igor Zelensky, 56, previously head of the Bavarian State Ballet. This means her married name is Mrs Zelensky.

She used to make regular clandestine trips by private jet to Munich, accompanied by state bodyguards.

She is known to favour ‘Vampire Facelift’, a beauty remedy used by Kim Kardashian.

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

She also underwent Botox procedures and had hyaluronic acid injections to treat frown lines on her forehead and laugh lines on her mouth, say reports.

Earlier, she was married to Russia’s youngest billionaire, Kirill Shamalov, now 43, son of a close Putin crony.