Russian investigators have raided the home of Ksenia Sobchak, the glamourous daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s one-time boss, in a moveFILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, greets Ksenia Sobchak, right, during his meeting with opposition candidates who ran against him in presidential election, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, March 19, 2018. Russian investigators on Wednesday raided the home of Ksenia Sobchak, the glamourous daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin's one-time boss, in a move that has sent shockwaves through the country's political scene. (Yuri Kadobnov/Pool Photo via AP, File) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS that has sent shockwaves through the country’s political scene.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian investigators on Wednesday raided the home of Ksenia Sobchak, the glamourous daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin's one-time boss, in a move that has sent shockwaves through the country's political scene.
Sobchak, a 40-year-old TV star, has often been critical of Putin, but many Russian opposition figures have accused her of serving the Kremlin’s agenda. In 2018, she became a liberal challenger in Russia's presidential election, finishing a distant fourth with about 1.7% of the vote in what her critics described as a Kremlin effort to add a democratic veneer to Putin's sweeping re-election.
Investigators said that the search at Sobchak's luxury home in a prestigious Moscow suburb was part of a probe into alleged wrongdoing by her media director, Kirill Sukhanov, who was arrested on charges of extortion.
Sobchak on Tuesday rejected the accusations against Sukhanov as “ravings and nonsense” and described his arrest as part of the authorities' efforts to stifle independent media.
The state Tass and RIA-Novosti news agencies said that Sobchak had fled Russia. Tass claimed she had bought tickets to Dubai and Turkey to mislead the authorities but eventually left for Belarus, from where she moved to Lithuania. The reports claimed that investigators suspected Sobchak of being involved in the extortion scheme along with her media director and alleged that a warrant was issued for her arrest.