Russian journalist Ksenia Sobchak was in the news Wednesday after Russian authorities raided her home and was the target of a blackmail case that forced her to flee Russia to Lithuania using an Israeli passport. But who is Ksenia Sobchak, daughter of a mentor of Vladimir Putin and opponent of the Russian President?
Known as the “Paris Hilton of Russia” because she had established herself in Russian high society by presenting “reality shows,” the 40yearold’s nickname was already well known in Russia. His father, Anatoly Sobchak, was the first democratically elected mayor of Saint Petersburg between 1991 and 1996.
Anatoly Sobchak studied at the Law Faculty of Leningrad State University, where he later became a professor to several Russian politicians, including Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin.
After leaving the city of Saint Petersburg, he was investigated for corruption and fled to Paris, France in 1997. Two years later, in 1999, Vladimir Putin became prime minister and dropped all charges, allowing his former teacher to return to Russia.
Sobchak died of a heart attack in February 2000 at the age of 62 while on a trip to support Putin’s presidential candidacy.
Almost 20 years later, Sobchak’s daughter Ksenia has become a critical voice for the Kremlin. In 2017, he submitted his candidacy for the 2018 Russian presidential election, vowing never to personally criticize Vladimir Putin over the Russian’s ties to his father.
Before becoming the youngest candidate for the presidency, Ksenia discussed her intentions with Vladimir Putin, who she said told her that “everyone has the right to make their own decisions and must be responsible for them”.
In the end, the journalist would take 4th place with 1.68% of the votes behind Vladimir Putin, Pavel Grudinin and Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
After the defeat, he continued his journalistic career after denouncing cases of torture in Russian prisons. According to her and her team, it was a report on the matter that motivated Wednesday morning’s house searches.
According to TASS news agency and state broadcaster RT, Ksenia is the subject of a blackmail case along with her former executive director and former editorinchief of fashion magazine Tatler, Kirill Sukhano, who was once arrested.
At stake is an attempt to extort money from Rostec, a stateowned company that manufactures and exports industrial products intended primarily for the military sector. The offense is punishable by imprisonment for 15 years.
“It is obvious that this is a blow to my editorial office, the last free editorial office in Russia that had to be suppressed,” Sobchak said on the Telegram platform.
After the search, the woman fled to Lithuania, a Lithuanian border guard source confirmed to the FrancePresse (AFP) news agency. “She came to Lithuania on an Israeli passport,” the source said.
Also read: The journalist and daughter of Putin’s former mentor denounces “attack” on his team
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