Hello and welcome to the latest edition of The Moscow Times’ Regions Calling newsletter, where our reporters examine key trends and events shaping life and politics in Russia’s regions.

This week, MT’s editor-in-chief Samantha Berkhead and reporter Pyotr Kozlov examine how Russian regional elites’ penchant for educating their children in the West never really ended after the invasion of Ukraine.

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Last week, the exiled artist and writer Nastya Rodionova revealed her findings that Liza Rudnova (Krivonogikh), Putin’s alleged extramarital daughter, lives in Paris and works at a gallery showcasing Russian and Ukrainian anti-war artists.

But it is worth remembering that Krivonogikh is far from a unique case. 

Despite Western capitals’ vows to close their doors to the regime and its beneficiaries as punishment for the invasion of Ukraine, there are countless federal, regional and municipal officials across Russia whose family members continue to live and study in the West. 

One Russian government official told The Moscow Times that after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he asked his son, who was studying in the U.K. at the time, to come back to Russia out of fear that he would face repression for being a Russian citizen. However, the official admitted that he still wished his son could complete his education in the West.

Another official said she sent her daughter to study at a school in the European Union. The daughter later enrolled in university in that country and now refuses to return to Russia.

“She’s 25 now and has spent half her life outside Russia, living in the West. And she no longer wants to come back home. It seems, as painful as it is for me, I have to accept that her ‘home’ is no longer here but there,” the official........

© The Moscow Times