Russian TV personality Ksenia Sobchak has announced she plans to run in next year’s presidential election, offering liberal voters unhappy with President Vladimir Putin’s rule someone to back, though she has little prospect of winning.
According to Sobchak, her position has now been formed.
The TV host has launched a website of the presidential campaign under the slogan: Sobchak against all..
Ms Sobchak conceded she was an unlikely candidate and said she supported opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is barred from standing.
Ksenia Sobchak sent a letter in which she explains her decision to the Vedomosti newspaper.
She also called for the Russian opposition figure and anti-corruption activist Aleksey Navalny to be registered as a candidate in the elections, and offered him cooperation with her campaign.
However, Navalny has been convicted of criminal charges – which he and his supporters say have been politically motivated – and is therefore by Russian law not allowed to run.
She surprised many by joining opposition protests in 2012 against Putin over fraud-tainted elections.
President Putin, who first took office as president in 2000, has not announced yet whether he will stand again. Navalny says the charge was trumped up to stifle his presidential ambitions and has campaigned across Russian Federation to drum up public support for his bid.
Mr Navalny is now serving a 20-day prison sentence for his role in organising “unsanctioned” protests. Those voters who are against the candidates who have already run for president, including Putin, should opt for her, she said.
She has since married actor Maxim Vitorgan and they have a son.
“She should withdraw if Navalny isn’t allowed to run, as a protest”, wrote Marat Guelman, a former Kremlin spin doctor turned Putin critic, on Facebook. “Ksenia Sobchak is no exception”, he said. The Kremlin says Putin will make an “important announcement” Thursday during the annual Valdai forum in Sochi.
Saying she intends to reform the education and judicial systems in particular, the newly announced candidate also hinted that she wants greater opportunities for women in Russian Federation. Sobchak has not commented on the allegation.
But some Russian liberals fear Ms Sobchak’s participation will play into the Kremlin’s hands by splitting the opposition vote. Fewer than one percent of Russians said they believed Sobchak could become president in a recent opinion poll, but analysts say that figure is likely to grow now that she has announced her candidacy. “Well, at least because I’m against everyone who usually uses this right”. Aside from Navalny, only Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the ultra-nationalist LDPR party, has publicly declared his intention to run for president.