Georgian woman claims to be Putin's mother

Georgia Little is known about the childhood of Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, despite his position as one of the world's most powerful men. Now, a Georgian woman has come forward to say she is his mother.

Vera Putina, 82, claims he is the child she gave away at the age of 10, giving an account of an unhappy childhood which is fiercely disputed by the Kremlin.

Putina lives a hand-to-mouth existence in rural Georgia, but displays the famous hospitality of the people of the Caucuses. Draping a cloth over the table in her garden, she piles it with fruit, nuts and shot glasses of homemade vodka.

Her house sits in the village of Metekhi, about 12 miles from Gori which was occupied by Russian tanks this August during the conflict over the breakaway state of South Ossetia.

Tell-tale signs

A tiny woman, with gnarled worker's hands, only Putina's strong cheekbones and deep-set, piercing blue eyes are suggestive of who she claims to be.

"I used to be proud of having a son who became president of Russia. Since the war I am ashamed," she says.

Since Russian-born Putina saw Vladimir Putin on television in 1999, she has been convinced he is her estranged son. Backed up by other residents in Metekhi, Putina claims he lived in the village between the ages of two-and-a-half and 10 before being sent back to his grandparents in Ochyor, in Russia.

Records in the archives of Metekhi's closest town, Caspi, indicate that a Vladmir Putin was registered at Metekhi school, 1959-1960, stated nationality: Georgian.

Putina's account is at odds with the Kremlin's version of events. Yesterday, Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, dismissed the claims: "The story is not true. It does not correspond to reality at all."

Putin's quasi-autobiography, First Person, states he was the sole surviving son of a factory worker and ex-serviceman of the Soviet Navy, and spent his early years in St. Petersburg. Putin claims both of his parents died of cancer in the late 1990s.

But Putina's claim to the maternity of the Russian leader highlights how little is known about the childhood of one of the world's most powerful men.

Scant details

The published details of his upbringing are scant. Putina's account also brings a personal dimension to the recent war between Russia and Georgia.

In Putina's account, Putin's father was a Russian mechanic who got her pregnant while married to another woman. She claims her son, nicknamed 'Vova' was born on October 7, 1950, exactly two years before Putin's official birth date.

In 1952, Putina married a Georgian soldier, Giorgi Osepahvili, and moved to Georgia with her son. In December 1960, she delivered 'Vova' back to his grandparents in Russia.

Putina believes that the St. Petersburg-based 'parents' referred to in Putin's biography adopted her son from his grandparents.

Shura Gabinashvili, a former school teacher, in Metekhi. She claims to have given the child Russian language classes between 1958 and 1960, and says that she has received death threats about making the claims public.

She said: "He was the shortest child in the class but he always wanted to win at everything."

Experts in Moscow remain unconvinced that the black and white photograph Putina has of her son, aged seven, is Putin. But the story is grist for the public relations machine of the Georgian government.

Meanwhile, Putina has challenged Putin to disprove her story: "I am ready to do a DNA test if he is."

- The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2008