Daughter of Putin’s mentor now a presidential challenger

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While Russian President Vladimir Putin has yet to announce his expected candidature for the March 2018 presidential election, the daughter of his political mentor has created a flurry in the media by nominating herself for the top job.

Ksenia Sobchak, journalist, former reality show host and socialite, officially announced on Wednesday her intention to run for president as an independent candidate next year. She would be the first female candidate in 14 years, a point highlighted by her campaign video with a kitchen as the backdrop.

“My name is Ksenia Sobchak. I am standing for president," she wrote on a website announcing her bid. "Like every Russian citizen I have the right to run for the presidency. I have decided to use that right," she added.

Sobchak’s campaign slogan declares "I am the 'none of the above' candidate," referencing the practice in Russian elections that allows voters to tick a box titled “none of the above” while rejecting all the other candidates.

“I am ‘against all,’” she wrote. “You are not for Sobchak, you are voting against all — against Yavlinsky, Zyuganov, and Putin,” she said referring to opposition candidates Grigory Yavlinsky and Gennady Zyuganov and the current president.

Putin's personal spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the independent TV Rain channel that the Kremlin sees Sobchak's candidacy as legitimate.

“If I understand correctly, Ksenia fully falls under the provision of our constitution,” he said. “She is a Russian citizen who, according to the constitution, may run for president, naturally, after the completion of all necessary procedures and formalities, which are also spelt out in our laws.”

Sobchak will now need to collect 300,000 signatures of support to register as an independent candidate. With 5.2 million followers on Instagram, that target doesn’t seem beyond her reach.

Putin's goddaughter?

This undated file photo shows Anatoly Sobchak (left), the first democratically-elected mayor of St. Petersberg, with Vladimir Putin who served as his deputy in 1990. (RT Photo)

Sobchak, 35, is the daughter of popular Russian politician Anatoly Sobchak who was the first democratically-elected mayor of St. Petersburg in the 1980s. Her mother, Lyudmila Narusova, is a former member of Russia’s upper house of parliament.

The senior Sobchak, also a law professor, is widely acknowledged as the mentor of Putin, who was new to politics at the time and served as the city's deputy mayor in the 1990s. Anatoly Sobchak died in 2000. There have been rumors about Putin being Ksenia Sobchak’s godfather, but these have never been confirmed.

"I have always had respect for [Ksenia Sobchak's] father and regard him as an outstanding figure in the modern Russian history... He was an honorable man, and played a great role in my life," Putin told Vedomosti newspaper in September, when reports of Ksenia Sobchak's likely bid for the presidency started appearing in the media.

However, Putin emphasized that “personal matters can play no significant role when running for presidency is this case," saying that Sobchak's potential political future "depends on the political program she offers.”

"Every citizen in accordance with the law has the right to run as a candidate. Ksenia Sobchak is no exception," he added.

'Russia's Paris Hilton'

Ksenia Sobchak at the Russian premiere of William Heins’ comedy film "Pledge This!", for which Sobchak provided the Russian voice-over for American businesswoman, model and actress, Paris Hilton, in Moscow on February 8, 2007. /Photo The Place Celebrity Photos (www.theplace2.ru)

Sobchak rose to fame as the hostess of one of Russia’s most popular reality dating shows, “Dom-2." A regular guest at high-profile black-tie events, she also had her own reality show called “Blonde in Chocolate,” in which she once appeared in a bubble bath.

The glamorous blonde has at times been labelled “Russia’s Paris Hilton." Sobchak, in fact, recorded the voice-over for Paris Hilton in the Russian-dubbed version of William Heins’ comedy film “Pledge This!”

Russian state-funded network RT says “Sobchak generally has a love-hate relationship with the Russian audience. Having been on the country's pop culture scene for many years, she has hosted one of the most popular reality TV shows, is a frequent guest at international VIP celebrity parties, has modeled for Playboy and is now editor-in-chief of L'Officiel (magazine) Russia.”

A screenshot of Ksenia Sobchak's Instagram post during her visit to the Great Wall of China in May this year. Sobchak has 5.2 million followers on the photo-sharing app. /Photo Instagram xenia_sobchak

Sobchak forayed into politics following the December 2011 parliament polls, when she joined protest rallies in Russia against Putin over alleged electoral frauds. At the time she was dating Ilya Yashin, a prominent liberal opposition politician. She has since married actor Maxim Vitorgan and they have a son.

Sobchak attempted to take the protest message to the masses through a discussion show she hosted on Russian MTV, but it was suspended abruptly after one episode after Sobchak tried to invite Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption activist Andrei Navalny. She later invited Navalny for an interview on her own show on TV Rain.

"Over the five years since the wave of protests in 2012, my political views have definitively formed," Sobchak wrote in a letter to Russian daily Vedomosti. "I am ready to declare them and stand up for them at any level, even the highest."

Threat to Navalny?

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny attends an appeal against his jailing for repeatedly violating laws governing the organization of public meetings and rallies, at Moscow city court in Moscow, on October 6, 2017. /Photo Reuters

She reiterated her support to Navalny, who is serving a suspended sentence for fraud and has been barred from standing in the 2018 presidential election. Sobchak called for allowing the opposition figure to participate.

"I am going to the polls not simply as a candidate but as a mouthpiece for all those who cannot become candidates," she wrote. "I am against revolution. But I am a good middleman and organizer," she added.

However Navalny had warned her not to stand and political observers say Sobchak’s candidacy will only split the opposition votes.

Navalny said that despite his "good, friendly relations" with Ksenia Sobchak, he thinks "highly negatively" of her enterprise. Her bid is an attempt to replace him as an opposition candidate, Navalny claimed, having called Sobchak a "cartoonish liberal candidate," RT reported.

Other candidates who have announced their bids for the 2018 election are: Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia; Grigory Yavlinsky, founder of Yabloko party; and Maksim Suraykin, head of Communists of Russia. President Putin has not officially announced his re-election bid.

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