TV star Ksenia Sobchak fled Russia
A Russian liberal media personality, Ksenia Sobchak, has fled Russia after being targeted in an extortion case, Russian state media reported on Wednesday. Mme Sobtchak, 40 ans, “fleed Russia in the night”, said a police source to the TASS agency, who said that she had passed through Belarus to enter Lithuania, without giving further details. According to the agency, the home of this daughter of a former mayor of Saint Petersburg who was the political mentor of Russian President Vladimir Putin, “was searched on Wednesday morning”.
“It is obvious that this is a raid against my editorial office, the last free editorial office in Russia, which had to be suppressed”she said on social networks, in her first reaction, saying however “hope that is not the case, and that it is really a misunderstanding”.
According to TASS and state broadcaster RT, the former 2018 Russian presidential candidate is targeted in an extortion case, along with her former business manager and a former editor-in-chief of flavors, a fashion magazine. Ksenia Sobchak has been part of the Russian political opposition for several years, although her critics accuse her of being a stooge for Vladimir Putin.