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TV personality Ksenia Sobchak, dubbed ‘Russia’s Paris Hilton’, announces presidential bid

Liberals fear she is being installed as a ‘laughing-stock’ candidate to divide the anti-Putin vote

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Russian socialite and TV host Ksenia Sobchak, daughter of the late St Petersburg mayor, Anatoly Sobchak, speaks to journalists during an interview in 2012. Photo: AP

Russian TV personality Ksenia Sobchak said on Wednesday she planned 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.

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Opinion polls show Putin, who has dominated Russian politics for nearly two decades, will comfortably win re-election if, as most observers expect, he decides to seek what would be his fourth term in March.

However, a significant minority of voters accuse the Kremlin chief of overseeing a corrupt system that has isolated Russia from the outside world, and many of them have taken part in mass protests organised by Putin critic Alexei Navalny.

Russian officials say Navalny is ineligible to run for president due to a criminal conviction he says was fabricated.

Sobchak, who has been described by Vogue magazine as the Russian version of US socialite Paris Hilton and is the daughter of Putin’s former mentor, said she had decided to run because she was tired of the same politicians, including Putin, running year after year.
In a 2003 file photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, speaks with Lyudmila Narusova, right, widow of former St Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchak, and Sobchak's daughter Ksenia, as he visited the grave of Sobchak. Photo: AP
In a 2003 file photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, speaks with Lyudmila Narusova, right, widow of former St Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchak, and Sobchak's daughter Ksenia, as he visited the grave of Sobchak. Photo: AP
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This file photo taken on June 18, 2004 shows Russian celebrity and a tv host Ksenia Sobchak arriving at the Moscow International Film Festival. Photo: Agence France-Presse
This file photo taken on June 18, 2004 shows Russian celebrity and a tv host Ksenia Sobchak arriving at the Moscow International Film Festival. Photo: Agence France-Presse
In a video clip posted online on Wednesday evening, Sobchak, 35, said she had the right to run for Russia’s top political job under the country’s constitution, which stipulates that all candidates must be 35 or older.

“I decided to exercise that right because I am against all of those (candidates) who usually exercise that right,” she said.

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