Maria Putin, the daughter of the Russian president, has reportedly fled Holland after calls for her to be deported following the downing of flight MH17.

The 29-year-old elder daughter of Vladmir Putin faced calls for her to be deported from the country where she is reported to live with her Dutch partner Jorrit Faassen, 34, an executive for a Russian consultancy firm.

Today police have stepped up surveillance outside the apartment after she became the target of threats on Twitter and messages on web forums called on people to protest outside the luxury riverside penthouse in Voorschoten.

Media reports that the couple had fled the country were played down in the Dutch press, but locals said they had not been seen in the area since Flight MH17 was brought down last Thursday.

Is this Maria? Some sources in Moscow have expressed doubts about the new images which have emerged of the Putin's mystery daughter, with one saying this glamorous shot of her in a park is in fact a central American model

Maria Putin, the daughter of the Russian president, has reportedly fled Holland after calls for her to be deported following the downing of MH17. Pictured: Putin with his ex-wife and woman believed to be Maria

Faassen bought up the five-bedroom, two-storey apartment and two other properties when the lavish Jugendstil block was built in 2009. A three-bedroom flat in the block is currently on sale for £545,000.

Unlike the families of Western leaders, the Kremlin refuses point blank to discuss divorced Putin's children or rumours that have linked him to glamorous Olympic gymnast Alina Kabayeva, who is three years older than Maria.

Maria was catapulted into media attention this week because she is said to live in The Hague, capital of the Netherlands which lost 193 of the 298 victims in the Malaysia Airline crash.

Her father has been widely blamed for covertly providing weapons of death to pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine.

These same rebels are blamed by the West for using a Russian-made BUK missile system to shoot down the Boeing 777 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

Maria is reported to live with her Dutch partner Jorrit Faassen, 34, an executive for a Russian consultancy firm. He owns a two-storey penthouse apartment (pictured) at the top of a luxury high-security block in Voorschoten, next to an idyllic canal

The mayor of the city of Hilversum, Pieter Broertjes, called for Ms Putin to be deported from the country in a radio interview.

He later apologised for his comments, saying the demands were 'not wise' but 'stemmed from a feeling of helplessness that many will recognise'.

Maria is understood to divide her time between Russia and the Netherlands, with the couple remaining very much within Putin's inner circle.

However, the face of Maria Putin - if it is her in the two pictures widely published today - will be a revelation to most Russians who have never seen their president, who first came to power in the Kremlin on the final day of 1999, properly pictured with his two daughters by ex-wife Lyudmila, except as children.

The face of Maria Putin - if it is her in the two pictures widely published today - will be a revelation to most Russians who have never seen their president, who first came to power in the Kremlin on the final day of 1999, properly pictured with his two daughters by ex-wife Lyudmila, except as children

Vladimir Putin's daughters Ekaterina (left) and Maria (right) during their childhood. Unlike the families of Western leaders, the Kremlin refuses point blank to discuss divorced Putin's children

Some sources in Moscow have expressed doubts about the new images, with one saying the glamorous shot of her in a park is in fact a central American model.

'This is not Putin's daughter, this is a model from Puerto Rico, Wilmadilis 'Uma' Blasini Purez,' echoed a claim on the Ukrainian site which first highlighted the image.

'This is pure Ukrainian propaganda,' said a Moscow picture editor, claiming the picture does not show Putin's daughter and was aimed at harming him in the current conflict.

However, it is hard to check when the Kremlin gives nothing away about the president's private life, except for a few old family snaps that were understood to be her and sister Ekaterina, now 27, who is believed to have wed the son of a South Korean admiral, though her life is shrouded in mystery too.

As pro-Putin Komsomolskaya Pravda said today of his daughters in covering the Dutch call to throw expel Maria: 'There is no single recent official photograph of them.'

Whether the latest images are accurate or not, they will be new to most Russians who are used to Soviet-style secrecy over the spouses and families of their leaders with the notable exception of Mikhail Gorbachev.

In a bid to break the taboo, one Moscow newspaper, Sobesednik, in 2011, resorted to asking a 'medical expert' if he could seek to identify which women in this picture were Maria and Ekaterina by studying their earlier childhood pictures.

Vladimir and Lyudmila Putin with daughters Ekaterina and Maria. His spokesman has admitted that Putin demands a 'closed system' about his daughters

Vladimir and Lyudmila Putin. Little is known about Putin's two daughters, Maria and Yekaterina, and their private lives are protected by a strictly obeyed code of silence among Russia's media

'In adulthood, the facial features change in proportions, and very difficult to predict exactly how,' said the expert dismissing such techniques as 'quackery' and throwing no new light on the matter.

Maria - known as Masha - born in Leningrad, now St Petersburg -on 28 April 1985 and is named after Putin's mother.

Their upbringing and schooling was hugely disrupted by his various jobs, initially as a KGB spy in East Germany.

When they returned to Russia with collapse of the USSR in 1991, he was initially without a job and started to work as a driver, before being plucked to work with his old law professor, Anatoly Sobchak, then mayor of Leningrad.

Putin meets with the Head of the Jewish autonomous region Alexander Vinnikov in the Kremlin in Moscow today

As he became a senior functionary in the St Petersburg government, the girls attended an elite fee-paying German academy in Russia.

Moving to Moscow in 1996, Maria, aged 11, was enrolled by Putin in the Friedrich Haass German International School .

Later when he headed the FSB secret service and went on to become prime minister, he withdrew Maria from the international school, and she - and later her sister - were educated at home evidently for security reasons.

'We get huge homework assignments even now when we do not go to school,' complained Maria in a rare quote.

At the time, in 2000, she wanted to study management and Ekaterina - Katya or Katerina - wanted to be a furniture designer.

Though he forbade photographs, early in his first term they did travel abroad, often with him, and had their own itineraries on the back of his official engagements.

BRITAIN WILL BE HIT HARDEST BY EU SANCTIONS ON RUSSIAN BANKS Having for months dismissed Western sanctions on Russia as toothless, business leaders here are now afraid that the crash of the Malaysian jetliner will bring about an international isolation that will cause serious and lasting economic damage. On Tuesday, EU governments targeted more Russian officials with economic sanctions and travel bans and said they would draw up more sweeping measures in coming days if Russia failed to use its influence over the rebels to ensure an independent investigation into the Malaysian plane disaster. New sanctions would target Russia's high-tech, energy and weapons industries, they said. But it appears EU sanctions on Russian banks will hit Britain harder than any other country and is likely to cost the City millions of pounds. The sanction on financial restrictions would ban European investors from Russian banks that are more than 50 percent owned by the state. This includes Sberbank and VTB, which are listed on the London Stock Exchange. It is unclear how far the 28-member bloc is willing to go, as it has a lot to lose economically. Defying calls from London and Washington to impose an arms embargo on Russia, France on Tuesday announced it would go ahead with the sale of a warship to Russia. The EU has also agreed not to look at gas and oil imports which protects the economies of most eastern European states and Germany. Advertisement

Sometimes they went without him even in the West.

For example, on in October 2001, aged 15 and 14 they went to Dublin, on a 'private visit' chaperoned by ambassador Yevgeny Mikhailov.

They were visiting penpals, it was claimed. The girls went sightseeing in Dublin and called into Leinster House where they had 'a brief hello' with then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

Silvio Berlusconi was, and is, the only Western leader to have got genuine close to Putin.

While the Italian media reported one visit involving the daughters, the Kremlin said po-faced: 'We only have information about the president's work.'

Both girls studied at St Petersburg State University, Putin's old university.

Katya entered the Oriental studies department; Maria is thought to have studied Biology.

Yet these were rare glimpses of the lives of his daughters.

His spokesman has admitted that Putin demands a 'closed system' about his daughters - even if one of them is living in a NATO country at a time when he and his government are engaging in fiercely anti-Western rhetoric.

'Yes we are a more closed system, but in general everyone knows what kids and family he's got, everyone knows that he split with Lyudmila,' said spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

'Do you know when it is important for a politician to speak about his family? When he goes for elections and people have no idea who this person is. So he's got to use every weapon he can to make people vote, like 'look at me, this is me, this is my family, vote for me'.

'Putin is well known among voters, and those who vote for him don't need to be told anything else about him.

'He is also convinced that every person, whatever he or she does, must have a private territory prohibited to anyone. His family is such territory.'

Peskov in the past has also apparently dismissed reports that Maria lives in Holland, and that her father visited her there.

'This information is not true,' he said of April 2013 reports that Putin might divert from his itinerary and make a stop in Voorschoten, according to Interfax news agency.

The Kremlin refuses point blank to discuss rumours that have linked him to glamorous Olympic gymnast Alina Kabayeva, who is three years older than Maria

Pressed later on Dozhd television on whether Putin's elder daughter, Maria, did indeed live with her Dutch boyfriend, he as quoted saying 'it's fake'

And Putin himself said soon after his split with Lyudmila in June last year: 'Speaking about our children, we really love them, are very proud of them. By the way, they got their education in Russia and live in Russia full-time. '

Putin often becomes prickly when asked about his family, but he revealed with no elaboration: 'Everything's good, both in their personal and professional lives.'

In 2011 banker Matvei Urin and seven other defendants were jailed for beating a Dutch executive - believed to be Faassen - linked by bloggers to a Putin daughter.

Some accounts named Ekaterina rather than Maria.

Urin, 34, and his retinue in November 2010 chased a BMW sedan that did not give way to his two-car cortege on Rublyovskoye Shosse, even though the BMW had priority on the road, stated the prosecutor's office.

The suspects blocked the sedan, dragged the driver out and beat him, inflicting minor injuries, and damaged the BMW, it was claimed.

Flowers laid to show respect for the victims of MH17 Bodies of MH17 victims arrive in Eindhoven, Netherlands

The convoy of funeral hearses carrying the remains of the victims of the MH17 plane crash is driven from the airbase in Eindhoven to Hilversum, The Netherlands

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands (pictured centre alongside her husband King Willem-Alexander) wipes away a tear as the bodies of victims of the MH17 crash are removed from an air force transport plane

At the time, Faassen, 30, was said to be working for a Gazprom affiliate.

The incident appeared to be given undue importance with Moscow police chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev personally involved in the operation to detain Urin.

Last year the same man was sentenced to seven and a half years in jail after it was claimed he was a member of an organized criminal group involved in transaction frauds.

Five banks associated with the banker had their licenses revoked.

A pro-Kremlin news agency wrote at the time: 'The severity of the treatment meted out to Urin served to kindle speculation of the links between Faassen and Putin, but rumours that the Dutchman is married to the president's oldest daughter have never been confirmed.

'Little is known about Putin's two daughters, Maria and Yekaterina, and their private lives are protected by a strictly obeyed code of silence among Russia's media.'

Maria's godfather Sergey Roldugin, artistic director of the St. Petersburg Music House, declined to speak about her. 'He is afraid to talk about these things because he does not know if Mr Putin will be happy about this,' said he aide.

The OSCE says this is the biggest piece of the Malaysia Airlines plane found so far. The fuselage was found in the forest with some of the windows still intact

A piece of wreckage from MH17 found at the crash site in Petropavlivka, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. More large parts of the downed airliner were discovered today as Dutch investigators took charge of the crash site

German documentary maker Hubert Seipel was given unprecedented access to Putin over a year for his film 'Ich, Putin' but when asked if he had ever seen has family, said: 'It's a bit of a tricky question.

'He is very sensitive, and I promised him not to expose very much about that.'

Meanwhile today t About the family, he added: 'They are existing. They are phoning. They are available.'.

For the third day in a row hundreds of Dutch people gathered on bridges above the closed motorways to pay tribute to the silent convoy of hearses as it passed underneath. Another 38 coffins will be flown in on Saturday, bringing the total to 227.

Two pet dogs who died on board the plane are also being flown back from Ukraine. Quinta, an eight-year-old Frisian Stabyhound, was flying home to be reunited with her owners, the Nootenbos family. The family of four recently relocated to Kuala Lumpur and had to leave Quinta behind because of quarantine restrictions.

'It’s good that they’ve managed to make this happen,' Patrick Nootenbos, 44, said. 'It’s a chink of light for us on a bad day.'

The family plan to cremate Quinta’s remains once she has been identified and scatter the ashes. 'Perhaps somewhere where Quinta liked to play,' said Patrick.

'The ceremony will be in six months’ time when we are back in the Netherlands on holiday.'

A pro-Russian militant holds up a stuffed animal as others look on at the site of the MH17 crash. 298 people were killed when the plane was apparently blasted out the sky by a surface to air missile

A child's shoe is seen among the wreckage of MH17. A week after the disaster took place, the crash site is still littered with debris and, in some cases, body parts



The other dog on board was Costa, a German shepherd pup who was also on his way to be reunited with his owners in the Philippine capital Manila.

A Dutch aviation expert has called for those investigating the MH17 crash to learn the lessons of the Lockerbie disaster in 1988.

Researchers painstakingly pieced together the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 to uncover vital clues about the bomb which blew up the plane over the Scottish town, killing 270 people. A Libyan intelligence agent, Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, was later convicted of the mass murder.

'It’s remarkable how well you could see where the bomb was in the aircraft when it exploded,' said Jan Smeitink, a former aviation specialist with the Dutch Safety Board.

'In Farnborough there is a model of the crashed plane where all the pieces were put back together with great accuracy. When I saw that I was amazed what an incredibly clear picture they had built up. You could see how there were very small pieces of wreckage in the area of the explosion, and as you got further away the pieces became bigger.

Smeitink said a similar exercise could help explain how Flight MH17 was brought down

'The way the pieces of wreckage landed, how they are spread out and their weight can reveal a lot about the angle and the G-force that the aircraft hit the ground with. In combination with other information that can tell you more about the cause.'

There were new claims today by Ukraine of shelling of its border areas from Russian territory , backing US fears of a 'clear escalation' in the conflict as the MH17 crash site probe continues.

Pro-Western Ukrainian forces raised their flag over the city of Lysychansk, with a 105,000 population, overnight after grabbing it back from rebel control.

But military spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov said army positions 'were shelled twice from the Russian Federation's territory' as they were at the border town of Marynivka and at Lugansk airport.

'Militants shelled these positions from Grad multiple-launch rocket systems.'

The reports follow US state department claims to have 'intelligence information' that Russian forces were firing artillery from inside Russia on Ukrainian troops, and that Vladimir Putin's forces are planning to 'deliver heavier and more powerful multiple rocket launchers' to separatist forces.

'They're firing artillery from within Russia to attack Ukrainian military,' said a spokeswoman.

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey warned Moscow is fanning nationalist sentiments that could spread across Europe.