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Russian President Vladimir Putin says some people in his family speak Chinese.
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“The members of my family, the little ones, speak fluent Chinese,” Putin said on Monday.
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China has remained a close economic ally of Russia throughout its war with Ukraine.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin says the “little ones” in his family can speak fluent Chinese.
Speaking to students at a high school in Kyzyl, Tuva, on Monday, Putin talked about his family’s familiarity with the language.
“By the way, there is increasing interest in the Russian language in China and vice versa,” Putin said, according to a translation by The Telegraph.
“My family members, the little ones, speak fluent Chinese.”
The Russian leader is known to be secretive about his family and private life.
Putin has two daughters, Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tithonova, with his ex-wife, Lyudmila Shkrebneva. The couple announced their separation in 2013.
In 2017, Putin said during an interview with filmmaker Oliver Stone that he was a grandfather, but it is still unclear how many grandchildren he has.
Putin’s comments on Monday should not… be surprising, given Russia’s position close relationship with China. The Asian giant has remained a close economic ally of Russia amid its devastating war with Ukraine.
In February 2022, just before Russia invaded Ukraine, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Putin declared a borderless partnership after meeting on the sidelines of the Beijing Winter Olympics that year.
However, Putin was quick to remind his audience that they should not focus only on the Chinese language.
“But that does not mean at all that we should forget about our interest in the English language. English is a great language, it has given humanity a lot in terms of combining knowledge and uniting people in culture and so on,” Putin said on Monday.
“We do not reject anything, we do not have hostile languages, we do not even have hostile countries. We have hostile elites in some countries that have been fighting Russia for centuries.”
Representatives from the Russian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, which was sent outside regular business hours.
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