Russian media personality Ksenia Sobchak apologises before Rostec boss for ‘actions of colleagues’ accused of extortion

Ksenia Sobchak, a public figure who ran for president of Russia back in 2018, has said that there is no political context in the extortion case from Russia’s state-owned defence conglomerate Rostec, her Telegram channel reads.

“My colleagues, a group of young guys, have become defendants in a criminal case on extortion. Now they are in jail, they face serious charges. There is no political context here. I know that the lads regret what has happened. Their fate will be decided by the court,” she wrote.

The TV presenter also apologised before Rostec head Sergey Chemezov for the fact that the actions of her colleagues "harmed” the CEO of Rostec.

The defendants in the case of extortion from Chemezov are Sobchak’s commercial director Kirill Sukhanov, former editor-in-chief of Tatler Arian Romanovsky, and Life magazine journalist Tamerlan Bigaev.

It was reported earlier that Sobchak visited the Rostec office to “settle the conflict” with Chemezov.

In October, a Moscow court arrested Kirill Sukhanov, commercial director for Russian media personality Ksenia Sobchak, and ex-chief editor of the Tatler magazine Arian Romanovsky over charges of extortion on an especially large scale.

The investigation claims that Sukhanov and Romanovsky extorted 11 million rubles (€176,000) from the CEO of Rostec Sergey Chemezov to delete certain posts published on the Telegram channel Tushite Svet. According to the case documents, the suit was filed by Chemezov and a person “close” to him, a man with the last name Boldykhayev.

“I don’t believe in it at all, and I hope that everything will sort out very soon, this is some kind of nonsense. If not, then it is obvious that this is a raid on my team, the last free team of journalists in Russia, and that it’s a hunt against us. I still hope that all of this is a misunderstanding really,” Sobchak commented on this criminal case earlier.

Ksenia Sobchak is the daughter of the first democratically elected Mayor of Saint Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak (who used to be Vladimir Putin’s boss back in the 90s) and Member of the Federation Council of Russia Lyudmila Narusova; she grew up in political circles. She graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, before starting a TV anchor career. Later in life, Sobchak entered politics and ran for presidency in the 2018 Presidential Elections. A polarising figure, Sobchak has been accused of working for the Kremlin by Russian opposition politicians.