Researcher Says Russian Leader Putin Has Bulgarian Origins

Society | March 26, 2012, Monday // 14:18|  views

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin holds his gift, a Bulgarian Shepherd Dog that he received from Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov in Sofia, Bulgaria 13 November 2010. Photo by EPA/BG

Russia's newly-reelected former President Vladimir Putin has Bulgarian origins, a Bulgarian researcher claims.

Prof. Dobrinka Raychinova, a graduate of the Moscow State University "Mihail Lomonosov", with degrees in engineering, and linguistics, says she has traced Vladimir Putin's descent to the town of Chiprovtsi in Northwestern Bulgaria, back to the 17th century.

Raychinova, who is currently a professor at Sofia University "St. Kliment Orhidski" and has number of publications in linguistics, has recently completed a study of Vladimir Putin's genealogy, she explained in an interview for blitz.bg.

She said that in his monumental book, "History of the Bulgarians", 19th century Czech author Konstantin Jirecek mentions that during the Chiprovtsi Uprising against the Ottoman Turkish Empire in 1688, a boy from a local family with the surname Putin survived the slaughter.

Fleeing the Ottoman atrocities, the boy managed to flee to Russia, and later settled in St. Petersburg, where Raychinova believes he married a Russian woman, and gave the start of Vladimir Putin's family.

"I supposed that he started Putin's family because I don't know of any other families with the same name, except for the one in St. Petersburg. I assume that this family's roots started with this great-great-grandfather who fled Chiprovsti," Raichinova stated, without providing further evidence to substantiate her claim.

The Chiprovtsi Uprising in 1688 was organized by the Bulgarians in Northwestern Bulgaria in an attempt to liberate the nation from the Ottoman Empire. Back then the town of Chiprovtsi was the thriving center of the Bulgarian Catholic community but ravaged by the Ottoman troops in the wake of the uprising.

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Tags: Vladimir Putin, Dobrinka Raichinova, Russia, Chiprovtsi, Chiprovtsi Uprising, Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turkey, Ottoman Turkish Empire, St. Petersburg, genealogy

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