Background ,
Vladimir Putin,
Lyudmila Narusova and Ksenia Sobchak (left to right) at the funeral of her father who was Putin's former mentor,
Anatoly Sobchak in 2000 Sobchak's father, Anatoly, had been both
Vladimir Putin's and
Dmitry Medvedev's law professor at
Leningrad State University. He built a close relationship with Putin, in particular, and in 1991 Anatoly helped launch Putin's career in politics when he was the mayor of Saint Petersburg. Putin then helped Anatoly flee Russia when he was wanted on corruption charges. According to the
Moscow News, "Putin's reported affection for the Sobchak family is widely believed to give Ksenia Sobchak a protected status, which may also explain her boldness", such as her encounter in October 2011 with
Vasily Yakemenko, the controversial leader of the pro-Kremlin
Nashi youth movement, when she reprimanded him for eating at an expensive restaurant in Moscow and published a video of the encounter on the internet. The
Izvestia newspaper conducted an online survey in which, after the press conference, users were asked about their desire to join Sobchak's movement. The results showed a lack of enthusiasm: of 2,133 respondents, only 6% expressed a desire to join for political reasons or sympathy for the leader, and 38% admitted that they did not know who Ksenia Sobchak was. After the first press conference, Sobchak stopped communicating with journalists for a month. On 7 July, she avoided participating in a debate with the leader of the youth branch of the
Rodina party,
Sergey Shargunov, at the Club on Brestskaya, which caused dissatisfaction among the youth politicians and journalists who attended the event. On 12 June, "Everyone is Free!" declared itself with a street action dedicated to improving the square around the
monument to Sergei Yesenin on Tverskoy Boulevard. Participants in the movement collected garbage, painted benches and playgrounds on the boulevard, and Sobchak herself, in the presence of journalists and onlookers, wiped off a yellow bikini with a red heart drawn by an unknown vandal from the crotch of the Yesenin monument. According to local residents, on the morning of that day, there was no paint on the monument, and it appeared only before the event. The action ended with a small concert and fashion show on a stage near the monument. In early July, a "club day" was held at the movement's headquarters. Sobchak made policy statements and issued club cards to the most active participants, providing free access to nightclubs, discounts, and other privileges. During the meeting, Sobchak presented a presentation on the goals and moral guidelines of the movement, in which two slides were occupied by the declared sponsors:
Microsoft,
Coca-Cola,
Russian Standard Bank, the
Renaissance Capital investment bank,
Lukoil,
MegaFon, the
Bilingua cafe-club, and other companies. "Club day" ended with a debate between writers Oksana Robski and
Sergey Minaev. At first, the movement was the cause of gossip in the political environment: experts and young politicians tried to understand Sobchak's motivations. Political scientist and contemporary art collector
Marat Gelman suggested that Sobchak could have set her sights on a political career in
United Russia and was gathering her supporters ahead of the
2007 Russian legislative election. The head of
Yabloko Youth,
Ilya Yashin, doubted Sobchak's independence and shared with journalists his opinion that "Everyone is Free!" could have been created to criticize the opposition with the approval of the
Presidential Administration. The leader of the pro-Kremlin
Nashi movement,
Vasily Yakemenko, doubted the Kremlin's involvement in the creation of the "Everyone is Free!" movement: in his opinion, Sobchak could both be useful to the Presidential Administration and discredit the Russian authorities. Subsequently, the movement ceased any activity, and journalists mentioned Sobchak as the head of "Everyone is Free!" only once - in the context of discussing the elections to the
Legislative Assembly of Saint Petersburg of the fourth convocation, which it considered fictitious, and the construction of the
Okhta Center skyscraper for
Gazprom on the right bank of the
Neva opposite the
Smolny Cathedral.
Russian presidential election, 2018 In September 2017, prior to her announcement to run, Putin said of Sobchak's presidential intentions to a press conference at the
9th BRICS summit, that "Every person has the right to nominate himself in accordance with the law. And Ksenia Sobchak is not an exception here. I respect her father
Anatoly Sobchak, I believe that he was an outstanding figure in contemporary Russian history. I'm saying this without a trace of irony. He was very decent, played a big role in my own destiny. But when it comes to running for presidency, things of a personal nature cannot play any significant role. It depends on what program she's offering, if she'll actually run, and how she'll build her presidential campaign". Sobchak declared her candidacy in the
Russian presidential election 2018 on 18 October 2017. Prior to the announcement of her intention to enter the
Presidential race in 2018, Sobchak discussed her intention personally with Putin. She said: "With Vladimir Vladimirovich, my family has been associated with a great deal... so I felt it right to say that I made such a decision". Putin, she said, told her that "every person has the right to make their own decisions and must be responsible for them". Sobchak was the
Civic Initiative's candidate for the
2018 Russian presidential election. Some skeptics accused Sobchak of being a spoiler to undermine
Alexei Navalny; every recent election for the presidency has featured a prominent liberal candidate handpicked by the Kremlin. Other skeptics suspect Sobchak's candidacy is mostly about building her brand. Sobchak did not believe she could win against Putin in 2018, but has stated she's in it for the long haul: "Of course I want to be president, I want to win, but I also want to be sincere. In a system created by Putin, it is only possible for Putin to win. I am realistic about who will become the president." On 15 March 2018, Sobchak and
Dmitry Gudkov announced the creation of a new party, called the
Party of Changes on the basis of the party Civic Initiative. The aim was of party was to "return our freedom and your freedom". Sobchak won 1.68% of the vote in the 2018 presidential election.
Flight from Russia On 26 October 2022, Russian media reported that Sobchak would be detained as part of an investigation into the alleged extortion of 11 million rubles from the head of
Rostec,
Sergei Chemezov, by Sobchak's director
Kirill Sukhanov. Lithuanian authorities confirmed that Sobchak had entered
Lithuania and was entitled to stay for 90 days without a visa because she was an Israeli citizen. The raid came after the arrest of Kirill Sukhanov, a commercial director at Sobchak's media group, "Ostorozhno, Media", for alleged extortion, with Sobchak reportedly being a suspect in the case. Lithuanian border officials said that Sobchak had arrived on an Israeli passport, while Sobchak called the case an attack on her editorial team. Then, days after she fled the country, she returned to Russia, according to state media. ==Political views==