Facebook George Kent and his wife Velida.
Velida Kitaina Kent is married to George Kent, the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the European and Eurasian Bureau at the U.S. Department of State. He is a senior-level official responsible for overseeing the U.S. policy in Ukraine.
The bow-tie-wearing Kent testified behind closed doors as part of the formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump on October 15, 2019. During that session, he explained to members of Congress that he felt that Rudy Giuliani had orchestrated a “campaign of slander” against former ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, in an attempt to get her removed from her post. Kent also testified that it was conveyed to him, through conversations with other officials, that President Trump wanted Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to “go to a microphone” and announce that Ukraine would investigate matters related to Democrats and specifically use the names “Biden” and “Clinton.”
Kent was scheduled to be one of the first witnesses to testify publicly on November 13, 2019. His wife has remained out of the spotlight as the inquiry continues and it’s unclear whether she will be in the room during the public proceedings.
Here’s what you need to know about Velida Kitaina Kent.
1. Velida Kitaina Was Born In Uzbekistan But Her Family Roots Run Deep in Crimea
Velida Kitaina was born in 1970 in Uzbekistan, a central Asian country north of Afghanistan. The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine shared a bit about Kitaina’s background in a Facebook post in December of 2016. Her husband, George Kent, was serving as the Deputy Chief of Mission in Kyiv at the time.
The post mentions that Kitaina has Crimean-Tatar roots. The Tatars are a Turkic ethnic group that is indigenous to Crimea. According to National Geographic, the group first settled in the region in the 13th century after a grandson of Genghis Khan conquered it. Catherine the Great annexed the peninsula in 1783 and made it part of the Russian empire.
In May of 1944, Kitaina’s grandparents were among those who were suddenly deported after Soviet leaders suspected the Crimean Tatars of working with the Nazis. An estimated 200,000 people were forced out. Scholars say that as much as 46 percent of the Tatar population died during the deportation or within the first year of exile to Central Asia.
The Tatars were only able to return to their ancestral home in Crimea after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989. This history helps to provide context as to why Crimean Tatars and Russia have a hostile relationship.
2. Velida Kitaina Is a Licensed Teacher In Virginia
Velida Kitaina Kent has a license to teach in Virginia. According to the state’s Department of Education website, Kitaina has a master’s degree and her current is valid through June of 2020.
The page states that Kitaina is can teach elementary education from preschool through sixth grade. She is also certified to teach English as a Second Language through high school.
Kitaina is listed on the staff directory for Arlington Public Schools in Virginia. A LinkedIn page with her name states that she has been a substitute teacher in the district since 2011– presumably, off-and-on, considering her husband’s appointments overseas.
3. Kitaina Has a Passion For Building Elaborate Gingerbread Villages
The brilliant Velida Kent w family builder team in front of their stunning gingerbread #Lviv
Velida Kitaina’s passion project is creating gingerbread houses. She designs massive projects that are replicas of famous architectural sites. The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine shared some of her masterpieces on social media.
For example, in 2015, Kitaina crafted a replica of Kyiv’s St. Michael’s Cathedral and presented it as a gift to the U.S. Embassy. In December of 2017, she made an entire town. It’s Ploshcha Rynok, the main square in Lviv. In a translated post, Kitaina explained her motivation behind the design. “Lviv for me is a place with a lot of positive energy… I do such projects every year because the countries I live in with my family are very important for me. This year it’s Lviv!”
Kitaina says she started creating gingerbread houses in 2008 while the family was living in Thailand.
4. George Kent & Velida Kitaina Have Been Married For More Than Two Decades
George Kent and Velida Kitaina have been married since 1996. He posted a photo in May of 2018 to Facebook with the caption, “Enjoying Kyiv Botanical Gardens’ amazing lilacs – the floral theme of our wedding 22 Mays ago.”
A search of online records suggests that Kitaina either became a citizen or, at the very least, obtained a work visa, after she married Kent. Records show that she was granted a Social Security number in Massachusetts sometime between 1997 and 1999.
5. The Kents Have Three Children
The Kents have three children together. Their two daughters are named Elina and Jana. Their son is named after his father. The photo embedded above was taken in 2003 when the children were still very young.
According to her Facebook page, Elina works as a staff writer for the Kyiv Post in Ukraine. She studied international relations at Boston University.
Younger sister Jana is still a high school student. She wrote on her Facebook page that she likes to play ice hockey and the clarinet.
The younger George Kent is a student at Harvard.
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