Famous presenter and alleged goddaughter of Putin flees Russia

Sobchak’s theft shows that people from Putin’s environment also feel less safe in Russia. Hundreds of thousands of Russians have fled since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine for fear of political mobilization or persecution, but those with (family) ties to Putin seemed safe.

The ties between Sobchak and Putin date back to the 1990s. Sobchak’s father, Anatoli, was mayor of St. Petersburg from 1991 to 1996 and a mentor to Putin, then deputy mayor. The Sobchak and Putin families often visited each other and went on vacation together. Putin attended Ksenia Sobchak’s baptism and met her several times during his presidency. The last known one-on-one encounter was in 2018, just before Sobchak ran for president.

Sobchak, 40, left on Tuesday after Russian police arrested her manager and raided one of her homes in Moscow. According to Russian state media, police were heading towards her with an arrest warrant for her for embezzlement. They claim that Sobchak deceived the police by buying a plane ticket to Istanbul, but in the meantime fled to Lithuania via Belarus. Lithuania confirmed the Sobchak border crossing on Thursday.

On Telegram, Sobchak says she is being sued in Russia for a documentary series about torture in Russian prisons. Sobchak has long criticized the Kremlin. During his presidential campaign in 2018, she spoke about gay rights abuses, corruption and propaganda on state television.

“False Opponent”

But Russian opposition politicians do not trust him. Alexei Navalny, who has been banned from running in the presidential elections by the Kremlin, called Sobchak a fake Putin opponent – the Kremlin always lets in desperate candidates to give the appearance of a fair vote. Shortly after the presidential race (Sobchak received 1.7% of the vote according to official results), Sobchak began working for state television, which she had called a propaganda machine during her campaign.

His arrival was met with suspicion in Lithuania. In support of Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Poland have stopped admitting Russians with a Schengen visa since September. One of the reasons for the entry ban is the fear of Russian spies. Hundreds of Russians have been expelled.

Sobchak was allowed in anyway because she crossed the border with her second Israeli passport, Darius Jauniskis, the head of Lithuania’s intelligence services, said Thursday. He said he had no evidence that Sobchak posed a security risk to Lithuania. Sobchak applied for an Israeli passport in April, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine – a sign that she was already worried at the time.