KOMMERSANT, GAZETA.RU (Russia)
MOSCOW - Ksenia Sobachak is the daughter of St. Petersburg’s first post-Soviet mayor, a graduate of Moscow’s prestigious State University and a popular reality show host. She says that the country’s president is a friend of the family, Kommersant reports.
Still, she has actively supported protests against that president, Vladimir Putin, appearing on the stage at demonstrations. She also happens to share an apartment with Ilya Yashin, a leader in Russia’s opposition movement and one of the organizers of the March of the Millions. The two aren’t married, and their relationship was completely unknown to the public until the Special Police searched their jointly-owned apartment as part of their investigation against Yashin and other opposition leaders.
In addition to reams of documents, investigators also took more than one million euros in cash, divided between euros, dollars and rubles, from the apartment. Sobachak’s passport was also seized. On her website, Sobachak reported that her passport was returned on June 15, after questioning at the Investigative Committee’s headquarters, and that she was interrogated about the cash (she told them that she was saving up for a watch). She certainly has the money, Forbes reports Sobachak’s income at $2.8 million.
Even before the search, taking a stand against Putin had already had professional consequences. In May, she was unexpectedly removed from the list of presenters at a the Russian equivalent of the MTV music awards, and was also stopped from presenting an award at the Russian equivalent of the Emmys, gazeta.ru reported.
