Acrobat and rock'n'roll dancer, Katerina Tikhonova, 38, is said to be Vladimir Putin's favourite daughter and could take over as complaints continue to emerge about his regime in Russia

Vladimir Putin’s daughter is emerging as the power broker of a new grouping demanding change from the failings of her father’s regime, a former Kremlin insider says.

Katerina Tikhonova, 37, an accomplished acrobatic rock’n’roll dancer, is heading a powerful lobby comprising scions - many in their 40s - of the ageing dictator’s circle. Icon of the group is Putin’s new hardline defence minister Andrey Belousov, 65, an economist who seeks to root out endemic corruption and restore the power of the state and a Soviet-style planned economy.

Tikhonova - who heads Innopraktika, also known as Russia’s National Intellectual Development Foundation - is Putin’s second daughter, rumoured to be his favourite. She has been long tipped for a political career but until now she has remained in the background.

“The children of 'Putin’s Politburo' are beginning to demand change,” said Abbas Gallyamov, a former speechwriter for the Russian ruler, and now a political analyst. "A group of people dissatisfied with the country’s current course is forming around the president’s daughter and the new defence minister.” If true, it could even mean Katerina - from his marriage to ex-wife Lyudmila - is being groomed as 71-year-old Putin’s successor.

Gallyamov told Point Media: “Recently, more and more signals have appeared indicating that a conflict between fathers and children in power is brewing.” There was a “maturing” of the second generation of Putin’s elites - “the children of those who a quarter of a century ago, together with the president, came to lead the country - to present claims to their fathers”.

He revealed: “Katerina Tikhonova is really starting to grow to maturity. A group of representatives of the second generation of the Putin establishment is now forming around her, who are dissatisfied with much of what is happening in the country.”

They are privately critical of Putin’s war, fearing it will destroy their privileged legacy, he indicated. Citing insiders he said: "The main reason for revisionist sentiment is dissatisfaction with the regime's declining performance…. Putin cannot win the war that he himself started. He was unable to effectively resist sanctions.

“And from the point of view of domestic politics, it’s also not good - the process of alienation of the people from power is gaining momentum. Members of the 'Tikhonova's Group' feel that if nothing changes - if they continue to move on the same course - then the future may not be as rosy as they would like.”

They do not publicly blame Putin but instead some of the corrupt cronies in his circle. “The main complaint voiced is precisely the problem of corruption or rather its epic scale,” he said. Greedy oligarchs close to the dictator got “carried away by personal enrichment” and forgot about the impoverished Russian people, leading to a toxic mix which could lead to revolution.

Some of Putin’s ministers and senior aides are said to be in the group gathering around Katerina. They include two ex-Putin bodyguards, now powerful players, Alexei Dyumin, 51, now a top Kremlin aide, who once saved the dictator from a raging brown bear, and Emergencies Minister Alexander Kurenkov, 52.

It includes two deputy defence ministers - Pavel Fradkov, 42, son of former Russian spy chief Mikhail Fradkov, and Putin’s cousin Anna Tsivileva, 52, along with her husband Sergei Tsivilev, 62, Russia’s Minister of Energy, two more presidential aides Dmitry Mironov, 55, and Vladimir Medinsky, 53, plus Valery Pikalev, 55, head of Russia’s Federal Customs Service. Another in Tikhonova’s circle is Alexander Novak, 52, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister.

Others included are Viktor Khmarin, 45, head of RusHydro and the son of Putin’s classmate, Andrey Turchak, 48, head of the Altai Republic, Svetlana Chupsheva, 44, Director General of Agency of Strategic Initiatives, Kirill Dmitriev, 49, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, and husband of a close Tikhonova's friend plus Alexei Chekunkov, 43, Minister for the Development of the Far East and Arctic. They are said to like Belousov's vision of a more socialist economy harking back to the Soviet era.