The journalist and television presenter Ksenia Sobchak, in a file image. /
The TASS agency reports that the journalist and presenter has left Russia after her home was raided this Wednesday for an alleged case of extortion
The journalist and television presenter Ksenia Sobchak, goddaughter of Vladimir Putin and daughter of the former mayor of Saint Petersburg, Anatoli Sobchak, who was the main mentor of the Russian president, would have fled Russia and would be a refugee in Lithuania, a country where she has arrived. through Belarus. This is reported by the TASS news agency, specifying that the events have occurred after the home of the also actress was raided this Wednesday in an alleged case of extortion involving its commercial director, Kirill Sujanov.
The aforementioned media outlet specifies that there is no procedural order against Sobchak, although she is wanted by the Russian authorities as a result of the arrest on Tuesday of her colleague Sukhanov, who was taken to the Main Directorate of the Moscow Ministry of the Interior after opening a process against him for an alleged extortion of 11 million rubles from Sergei Chemezov, executive director of Rostec and very close to Putin.
According to investigators, Sukhanov demanded this amount in exchange for deleting a negative post on a Telegram channel run by former Tatler magazine editor-in-chief Arian Romanovski, who, according to unofficial data, is also charged in the case. “It is obvious that this is a raid on my editorial office, the last free office in Russia, which had to be suppressed. I hope it’s all really a misunderstanding,” the journalist previously said on Telegram.
On September 12, the Russian Police reviewed one of Sobchak’s Telegram channels in search of “LGBT propaganda” after having interviewed the Russian tennis player Daria Kasatkina, who revealed this summer that she was a lesbian.
Although the late mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoli Sobchak, was the political mentor of the current Russian president, his daughter Ksenia has been involved in liberal opposition politics for several years and ran against Putin for the presidency in 2018. The Telegram channel The journalist, who frequently broadcasts critical reports on Moscow politics, has 1.4 million followers, but she continues to generate controversy among regime critics as some accuse her of having ties to the Kremlin.