Ksenia Sobchak, a famous Russian television personality and “the glamor daughter” of Russia, has fled after Russian investigators raided her home this week and entered Lithuania using an Israeli passport. Director of the nation’s State Security Department Darius Jauniskis claims that Sobchack entered Lithuania using her Israeli passport.
Why was her house searched?
Her flat had been searched as part of the criminal case against her commercial director Kirill Sukhanov, who was imprisoned on extortion accusations, Sobchak left the country.
“Kirill Sukhanov, our director of business, has been arrested. He is being accused of extortion, Sobchak stated on her Telegram channel on Wednesday. Sobchak criticized this as “nonsense” and an assault on her editorial staff.
What Sobchak says?
“I don’t believe these accusations at all, and I’m hoping that now that everything has been cleared out, they’ll realize that it’s all rubbish. If not, it is a raid on my editorial office, which had to be shut down because it was Russia’s last independent editorial office.”
Why did the suspect run away?
According to a source in the law enforcement community, Sobchak is a suspect in the case of her director, who is accused of extorting 11 million rubles (about $179,000) from Sergei Chemezov, the chairman of Rostec, a state-owned firm.
According to Sukhanov’s attorney Svetlana Lipatova, the defense intends to challenge the validity of his detention.
Former opposition leader?
Sobchak, born and reared in St. Petersburg, has a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Her late father, reformist politician Anatoly Sobchak, mentored Putin when he first entered politics.
Ksenia Sobchak routinely attended opposition marches and rallies in the 2010s, but after competing for the Russian presidency in 2018, she lost the support of opposition leaders.
Leaders of the Russian opposition, including Alexey Navalny, harshly attacked her choice to run for president, calling her a “Kremlin project” and accusing her of running a phony campaign.
