It is believed that Russian President, Vladimir Putin‘s daughter, Maria has fled the Netherlands after threats to have her deported.
The 29 year old’s exodus from her $3.3 million penthouse near Amsterdam which she lived with her boyfriend, Jorrit Faassen, a director at Gazprom, the Russian-owned gas conglomerate, came as fury over Russia’s suspected involvement in the downing of Malaysia Airlines MH17. At the time the flight had taken off from Amsterdam, leaving over more than half of the deceased of Dutch nationality.
Should Vladimir Putin’s daughter, Maria Putin be deported from Netherlands?
‘We have not seen her here since the plane went down,’ a neighbor of Maria Putin in the exclusive suburb of Voorschoten just outside of Amsterdam told the UK’s Mirror.
Since the downing of MH17, calls would come to be made by Voorschoten Mayor Pieter Broertjes calling for her to be deported, whilst Dutch citizens lambasted her and her father on social media.
Despite calling for her deportation, Broertjes perhaps sensing he may have inspired diplomatic faux pas would hours later backtrack on his comments.
Tweeting: ‘(The) note about daughter Putin on Radio 1 was not wise,’
‘This stemmed from a feeling of helplessness that many people will recognize.’
Nevertheless despite the backdown, the mayors comments would galvanize townspeople to later converge on Maria Putin’s place of residence, with some leading a protest outside her flat this past Monday.
Local media would subsequently run photos of her apartment. Some would come to question the brazen gestures, in light of the fact that the media ought to have known (unless they planned to) that the sharing of such images would only inflame tensions and now literally put the daughter at risk given that her whereabouts were revealed in light of national anger towards Russia.
Police have since stepped up surveillance outside the apartment, a moot point in light of the almost sure exodus of Maria Putin…
And then there was these comment on the web that made me wonder:
We Dutch have known for years that Putins daughter resides in our country. We simply do not care: she can live wherever she wants to live her life, plus she is not her father.
The words of the major of Hilversum are extremely stupid and he does not speak for the entire nation. The paper that is mentioned in the article, “De Telegraaf” is known as a tabloid style paper, with a deep hankering for sensationalist stories. It too does not speak for the entire nation: it just wants to sell papers.
I am very much disturbed by how quickly international media picked this inane story up and present this as what we Dutch are feeling right now. We are in mourning for all 294 dead. Yes we are angry, just not at Maria Putin because of her last name.
Disgusting behaviour from de Tele_graaf, as usual rabble rousing and encouraging a witch hunt, this time against somebody who has not been shown to have done anything wrong, simply because of her father. Revolting behaviour too from the mayor of a major town; we should be able to expect better leadership from him. What’s happened is a tragedy but that’s no excuse for dropping all standards of civilised behaviour and persecuting an individual for her family ties. Yesterday’s scenes were largely very dignified; what a shame that the country is let down by a rotten newspaper and a mayor with a mouth that’s too fast for his brain.
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