Putin’s relatives take SPIEF stage to talk drug import substitution and birth rates

Two of Vladimir Putin’s relatives appeared at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on its opening day: his younger daughter Katerina Tikhonova and his second cousin once removed, Elena Fisenko.

Tikhonova, who heads Innopraktika, spoke at a pharmaceutical forum held as part of the SPIEF program. She appeared via video link, as she had in 2024 and 2025.

Her remarks focused on import substitution in Russia’s pharmaceutical sector and how more than 90% of state drug procurement still involves “Western-made products.” Tikhonova also discussed the Interagency Coordinating Council on Pharmacological Innovation and a registry of priority projects in the field. “The ultimate goal of all this is full-cycle domestic pharmaceutical innovation that should provide [patients] with our Russian-made drugs,” she said.

Fisenko, Russian Railways’ medical director, participated in a session titled “Workers’ Health: New Directions and Solutions.” She described how the company’s medical services help protect workers’ health on the job and raise birth rates. Russian Railways employees live several years longer than the average worker in Russia, she said, because the company maintains its medical infrastructure.

Fisenko also spoke about new men’s and women’s health centers to be housed in women’s clinics, and about how doctors discourage women from having abortions.

As the independent Russian investigative outlet Agentstvo notes, Fisenko has participated in every SPIEF since 2017. Tikhonova, meanwhile, was attending (remotely) for the third consecutive year. On June 4, Putin’s elder daughter, Maria Vorontsova, a leading researcher at Moscow State University’s medical research and education institute, is scheduled to moderate a session at SPIEF titled “Career Guidance and Mentorship in Medicine: Experience, Best Practices, and the Future.”

Putin himself is expected to attend the forum on June 5, when he is set to take part, as usual, in the plenary session. The forum runs through Saturday, June 6.

Ukrainian drones struck St. Petersburg on the forum’s opening day. A large plume of black smoke was spotted over the city after the strike. The St. Petersburg Oil Terminal — one of the largest liquid bulk cargo transshipment facilities in the Baltic region — appeared to have caught fire, according to local reports and footage circulating on social media.