Where will Ksenia Sobchak take money for an election campaign?

The cost of the event can be about 1 billion rubles. Who will pay him and how?

Photo: sobchakprotivvvseh.ru

Ksenia Sobchak announced that she would participate in the presidential election: “Do you have your candidate? Mark Sobchak. You do not choose her for president. You just get a legal and peaceful opportunity to say “Enough! Got it! ”, - says her open letter published in Vedomosti. In September, this publication reported that the presidential administration thought about the fact that the sparring partner of Vladimir Putin would become a woman in the election.

With his campaign, Sobchak will lead on his own, told The Bell a source close to her future headquarters. Two more of her friends claim that the political strategist Vitaly Shklyarov will be a consultant to Sobchak. Shklyarov is known for working on election campaigns Angels Merkel, Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders. This year, he advised Dmitry Gudkov and Maxim Katz in the Moscow municipal elections, where the opposition managed to succeed. His services can cost several tens of thousands of dollars, says one of his acquaintances. Shklyarov himself confirmed his participation in the campaign, refusing to discuss the sources of its financing.

The entire Sobchak campaign will cost up to 1 billion rubles , says a source close to her future campaign headquarters. For comparison: the costs of businessman Mikhail Prokhorov for the 2012 presidential campaign amounted to about 1.5 billion rubles (the participant of his campaign called this figure). According to official figures, he spent 55.6 million rubles on the collection of signatures.

Where will Sobchak get the money for the polls?

• Sobchak herself writes that in the near future she will form “Fandraise teams”. In an interview with Rain, she said that she spoke with dozens of businessmen. She hopes that soon they will be announced and publicly admit her support. So far, Sobchak has at the disposal - no more than 2 million rubles, but there are no large sponsors, her acquaintance claims.

• Several acquaintances of the future candidate and a source close to the government, they say that Sobchak could turn to Mikhail Prokhorov and the founder of Alfa-Group Mikhail Friedman for help. Sources, surrounded by both businessmen, categorically deny this, arguing that they do not give money to the Sobchak campaign (Prokhorov talked about this Bell officially a few weeks ago).

• The nomination of Sobchak is supported by the presidential administration, which means that there will be no problems with money, a large businessman and a source close to the government are sure of her. Electoral funds are formed mainly at the expense of large businesses - this resource is used by the presidential administration, which will not be difficult to help the right candidate, one of them argues. This is confirmed by the Kremlin political scientist, who participated in the preparation of election campaigns.

• The nomination of Sobchak is considered in the Kremlin as an option to increase the interest of citizens in the campaign, in September the interlocutor of the BBC, close to the presidential administration, said . After that, the agency reported that Sobchak met with Vladimir Putin and interviewed him for the film about his father. Sobchak herself confirmed this today.
• The representative of the CEC assured The Bell that the names of the sponsors of all presidential candidates would be disclosed. But, for example, it was only reported about financing Putin’s campaign in 2012 that United Russia transferred 200 million rubles to its fund, about 186 million rubles were amounted to “voluntary donations of a legal entity” and 14.3 million rubles - “voluntary donations of a citizen”.

How to collect signatures?

Before starting full -scale expenses, Ksenia Sobchak has yet to go through a number of formal, but very complex procedures. According to the law, you can advance to the presidency either from the political party, or by self -nomination.

• Obviously, Sobchak will have to go the second option. To do this, you must first collect an initiative group of 500 citizens that will nominate it. And after that - for registration in the elections - to collect at least 300 thousand signatures of citizens, of which no more than 7.5 thousand signatures should account for one constituent entity (this means that signatures must be collected in at least 40 regions).
• “The most difficult task is to overcome this artificial barrier, built on the imperfection of the registration data of citizens, the engagement of regional and federal authorities, the bias of the election commission,” Sobchak herself writes. If we are talking about the project of the Presidential Administration, this is a feasible task, says the Kremlin political scientist.

About how Ksenia Sobchak turned her name into a successful brand, and whether she will be able to increase its cost in the elections, we wrote in detail here .

Svetlana Reiters, Irina Malkova, The Bell