Well, for God's sake

How Ksenia Sobchak was advanced to the presidency and who participates in her campaign

The TV presenter, editor -in -chief of the magazine LʼOfficiel Russia, Ksenia Sobchak on October 18, announced that she intended to put his candidacy in the Russian President’s election in 2018. The fact that Sobchak could go to the presidency said for the past month and a half - however, the TV presenter to the last called this information rumors. About what the Sobchak program will be and who will enter its headquarters is still known little: it is clear, for example, that political strategist Vitaly Shklyarov, co -author of the success of opposition candidates in the election of municipal deputies in Moscow is going to advise it. Medusa tells how Sobchak was advanced and what is known about her campaign.

The image of a modern young woman

For the first time, the information that TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak can nominate his candidacy in the presidential election appeared on September 1, 2017. Vedomosti wrote that the presidential administration is looking for a woman to participate in the campaign and considers Sobchak among several other candidates as a possible sparring partner of Vladimir Putin. “The ideal option is Ksenia Sobchak, who demonstrates the image of a modern young woman who would like to go into politics: smart, bright, interesting, but not in everything corresponding to the image of a typical Russian woman, the question is whether she will be resolved,” the publication wrote with reference to the presidential administration (AP). Sources of Medusa confirm that the domestic political unit AP really collected proposals from close experts about who could play the female role in the elections.

Sobchak herself after the release of the material was indignant on Instagram that the journalists “did not consider it necessary to get at least some comment” from her. “I am an independent person and with any“ Upeshechka ”and other hell has never been noticed in relations and I will not. What is very proud of, ”she said. - What is there who is discussing in high offices - I don’t know, but I have been closely watching our political landscape for a long time. And I have one diagnosis - a dull shit of your policy today, gentlemen! Boring and vile. " Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the possible participation of a woman in the presidential election, said at that time that "they did not think about it in the Kremlin."

Nevertheless, the topic of the nomination of Sobchak in the presidential election continued to be discussed; A few days later, Putin commented on this information with the words “well for God”. He stated that he respects his father Ksenia Anatoly Sobchak, he considers him an outstanding figure in modern Russian history, “but when it comes to run for presidents, such personal things cannot play any significant role” (Putin began a political career in the Sobchak administration, which was then the head of St. Petersburg). Putin added that in the event of a nomination, the result of Sobchak, like other candidates, will depend on how she builds her campaign. “It is not me that I must determine who is better for the Russian people as the head of state. In the end, this is determined in the elections, ”Putin assured.

Two weeks later, information appeared that Sobchak was looking for a leader for his campaign headquarters. Among other things, the candidates of the Rain TV channel (on which Sobchak worked) Natalia Sindeeva, the creator of the Speed ​​Center Foundation Anton Krasovsky, the journalist of Roman Super, the former head of the human rights department of open Russia Maria Baronova and the former head of the rain of Mikhail Zygarya, were called. None of them officially confirmed that Sobchak turned to them. The Russian BBC service with reference to the people to whom Sobchak offered this post, wrote that she was prompted by the idea of ​​nominating the president to nominate in the presidential administration-she liked the project, but Sobchak did not allocate the budget. “At the meeting, she tells what an important story this is, that the woman will compete for the presidential post, as important for the development of the country,” said the interlocutor of the BBC. “At the same time, Sobchak emphasizes that her campaign should not be political.”

“I only hear from journalists about my supposedly nomination. Personally, I didn’t tell anyone like that, ”Sobchak said in response. “Rumors about my nomination are a provocation and another attempt to discredit.” She associated such news with a "provocation related to another project." “I have a project, it is journalistic, but is connected with politics too,” she said, adding that she discussed him with Sindeeva. She later confirmed that she really talked with some famous people, “but not only with these and on another topic” - for her new “big and important” project. “Now there is a risk that it may not take place at all due to the fact that the situation around me was extremely aggravated,” she said. The Bell suggested that we are talking about a political television show for elections; Sources of Medusa suggested that this could be the launch of its own channel on Yetube.

Cannibals and puppets

Critically, the founder of the Corruption Fund, Alexei Navalny, reacted to the news about the nomination of Sobchak, who himself leads the presidential campaign (the state does not plan to let him into the elections until at least 2028 because of the criminal record in the case of Kirovles-this, in particular, said the head of the Central Election Commission Ella Pamfilova). Navalny said that "Sobchak, being a very bright, recognizable and attractive person," adheres to "rather cannibalous views on politics and economics." Navalny noted that “Judging by how interesting she is mannering, she still wants to run,” and Sobchak called not to participate in “a rather disgusting Kremlin game called“ Liberal Mosque, who is drawing to the elections, to divert attention ”. The head of the Navalny campaign Leonid Volkov, in turn, wrote about the nomination of Sobchak: “What seemed at first a misunderstanding, and then a joke, quickly becomes a fact” - and added that “it will be a very stupid story.” (Alexey Navalny back in early June 2017-before giving a TV presenter interview on Rain, he remarked that "who has presidential ambitions, is Ksenia Sobchak.")

Sobchak, in response to Navalny’s criticism, stated that she was holding moderate law-liberal glances, and not “cannibalists”, said that she was not a “puppet”, and noted that her participation in the presidential election recently said so much that she began to think about it by will. ”

The former owner of Euroset Yevgeny Chichvarkin, who left Russia to London, also called on to abandon the “contract match”. He explained that such a good one does not end and she "makes Putin legitimate and knocks Alexei Navalny." The businessman cited the example of billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who participated in the presidential election and was “luminous”. “I will be forced to send you and your entire team on *** if you do it. Please do not do this, ”Chichvarkin said. “Yes, you went to *** yourself,” her husband, actor Maxim Vitorgan answered for Sobchak. The musician Sergei Shnurov, who wrote a poem about “like the Democrats” by Navalny and Chichvarkin on Instagram , also stood up for Sobchak (and on the day of the nomination of Sobchak “Leningrad” released a clip for the song “Candidate” with the words “far from the people, all these are Navalny, that Putin, Trump”).

On October 10, an interview with Sobchak was Glamour magazine about “editorial everyday life and presidential ambitions”, where its nomination was discussed almost as a resolved issue. To the question of the editor-in-chief of Glamor, Maka Fedorova “Tell me now as a potential candidate for the highest post in the country: do you think that your past in show business will hurt you?” Sobchak replies: “Someone, maybe, would damage it, but I think I will help me. It's just that I am just such a person - as the cake “anthill”. There are many different layers, but in the end I am one cake. I communicate with different people, I am interested in everything, I want to know everything, to participate in everything, to study every second - my life consists of this. ” In the heading of the interview, a quote “Ksenia Sobchak was made by the president - this is a stem. A very high-level art project. ” In October, the news appeared that Sobchak met with Vladimir Putin. The meeting was held as part of the preparation of the film about the life and career of Anatoly Sobchak, which she shoots on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of his birth (although the date has already passed-Sobchak was born on August 10). “It is assumed that Vladimir Vladimirovich will perform one of the speakers in the film,” said her mother Lyudmila Narusova.

Sobchak will take part in the elections for the first time. She began to actively engage in politics during the protest rallies of winter 2011 - Spring 2012: she performed on stocks, was fined a thousand rubles for protest festivities after the events of May 6; In June 2012, a search was held in her apartment. At the same time, Sobchak urged not to try to change power. “The most important thing is to influence power, and not to fight for power,” she said at one of the rallies. A few years before, in May 2006, Sobchak, who at that moment was the leading reality show “Dom-2”, announced the creation of the youth movement “All free”, explaining that “the struggle for rights can be fun”, but this initiative did not receive any continuation.

Sobchak against everyone

Sobchak reported her nomination in a letter, which was published on the Vedomosti website on the evening of October 18. In it, she writes that participation in the elections is the best of legal ways to show your disagreement and you can’t ignore them, even if they are not registered by Navalny. According to Sobchak, she wants to speak out of a kind of count “against all”, so that everyone who is voted against Putin, the leader of Yabloko, Grigory Yavlinsky, the leader of the Communist Party of Gennady Zyuganov and other traditional participants in the presidential election. Sobchak promised to use the elections as a platform for agitation and talk about how bad the situation in the country, a wide audience - not only those who are signed on the Rain TV channel and watches the news on Utube.

At the address of the web page on which Sobchak is published, it is clear that it is dated September 30. The domain addresses related to the campaign (including the address at which the official website of the candidate Sobchak against all is located) were registered on October 11. Then the Sobchak2024.com website was registered, from which there is a redirect on Sobchak against all.

The editor-in-chief of Vedomosti Ilya Bulavinov, in response to the question of “Medusa” regarding the date at the web page address, said that he could “neither confirm or refute anything”. He also refused to comment on the information that Demyan Kudryavtsev, a member of the Board of Directors of the publication (his family owns Vedomosti) takes part in the campaign of Sobchak.

The fact that Kudryavtsev helps, Medusa was told by a source participating in the TV presenter campaign; Other media wrote about this (for example, The New Times and Rain ). Kudryavtsev himself in a conversation with Medusa on the afternoon of October 18 - even before the appeal was published in Vedomosti - said that he had nothing to do with the headquarters, but has “friendly relations only with Ksenia Sobchak itself”. On the evening of October 18, he again told Medusa that “Sobchak will not participate in the presidential campaign.

The interlocutor of Medusa, close to the campaign, also said that it was participating in it, the “Open Russia” sponsored by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, but the press secretary of Khodorkovsky Maxim DBAR said that this was not so. “We are not involved in the potential nomination of Sobchak to the president,” said DBAR. “If one of our employees or activists wants to participate in this, then the conditions will be the same as in the case of the Navalny project: we do not mind, participate, but on our own behalf.” Khodorkovsky himself on Twitter said that in the video message Sobchak “there is something” and she “can help people understand the essence of“ elections without choice ””

Alexey Navalny and the head of his presidential headquarters Leonid Volkov are now under arrest - for calls to participate in an illegal protest. The press secretary of Navalny Kira Yarmysh and the head of his Moscow headquarters Nikolai Lyaskin did not respond to the calls of Medusa.

Journalist Mikhail Zygar, whom Medusa interlocutors continue to connect Sobchak with the headquarters, also stated that he had nothing to do with the campaign. Journalist Anton Krasovsky, who headed the presidential headquarters of Mikhail Prokhorov in 2012, said that he was ready to support Sobchak in any capacity. “If I correctly understand the principle of this campaign, this is a call campaign, not an agreement,” said the Krasovsky Medusa. - This is a story about the fact that “and let you, who want, join me, we will agree there: if you want to work in fullness, you want, just support”. For my part, I say: I support Ksenia Anatolyevna, and everything that depends on me so that she will beautifully go through the elections, I will do. ”

Several media also reported that Vitaly Shklyarov, a political strategist, who worked in the United States with a participant in the democratic presidential primaries Bernie Sanders, and also advised by the former State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov to work in the election of the United Democrats in the election of municipal deputies in September 2017 (in the end Democrats ”managed to get more than a quarter of mandates). Shklyarov confirmed The Bell that Sobchak would participate in the campaign. In the code of Sobchak, the site addresses were discovered , which the "United Democrats" used during the campaign. The head of Gudkov’s headquarters, Maxim Katz, said that representatives of the headquarters were “discussing the sale of a license to use the system”, which was used in the elections of municipal deputies, but noted that they are ready to interact only with “exemplary candidates”, and “according to the statement of [Sobchak] such an impression is not an impression”.

Now Ksenia Sobchak is leading on the Rain TV channel tok-show "Sobchak Live" and works as the editor-in-chief of the magazine LʼOfficiel. How it will combine journalistic activities with political, is still unknown. The phones of the Rain CEO of Natalia Sindeeva did not work on the evening of October 18. A source in LʼOfficiel told Medusa that Sobchak on the afternoon of October 18, before the publication of his statement, warned the editorial office that he was not going to quit.

Press Secretary Sobchak Ksenia Chudinova told Medusa that so far he could not name the names of people who will enter the election headquarters. She said that this information will be announced at a press conference on Tuesday, October 24. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “Ksenia is a talented person”, who “is completely suitable for the position of our constitution” and “has gained experience in recent years, and in various fields”, but “if she has any views on politics, she will have to gain experience there from scratch.” “Politics differs from journalism and show business, this is a completely different substance. Politics implies the will of people, ”he said to the rain. “If Ksyusha is able to answer this will of the people, she will have a chance in politics.”

Immediately after the announcement of the nomination, Sobchak gave an interview to the Rain channel on which it works. In particular, she said that if the candidacy of Alexei Navalny is registered, "we will talk with him, [and] I will be taken to his favor." According to the Levada Center dated August 2017, the anti-rating Sobchak amounted to 8 percentage points-one less than that of Navalny.

Taisiya Bekbulatova

With the participation of Alexander Gorbachev, Pavel Merzlikin and Vladimir Tsybulsky