A government-connected Kremlin critic’s flight from Russia raises questions about who is still safe.social media hours earlier had appeared to show Sobchak, 40, crossing a border.
By Anatoly Kurmanaev, Oct. 28, 2022, NY Times
One of the best-known Russian public figures who has often criticized the government has left the country, shocking many in a nation that has grown accustomed to steadily diminishing dissent.
Ksenia Sobchak, who has challenged Putin at the polls while sometimes appearing to accommodate his agenda, entered Lithuania on an Israeli passport, Lithuania’s foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, told reporters on Thursday. Videos posted on
A day before Sobchak’s departure, an executive at her media company was arrested and accused of extorting a Russian state firm. Security officers searched Sobchak’s home this week, according to Russian state media. Ms. Sobchak did not respond to arequest for comment, and she has not commented publicly on her departure.
One of Russia’s most polarizing figures, Sobchak exemplifies a generation of the country’s elite that has sought to build a public following while largely playing by the rules of a system built by Putin in over 20 years in power.Sobchak of being a Kremlin operator, creating a mirage of competition in what is really a one-party system.
Her departure appeared to indicate that even modestly contrarian voices connected to the government were no longer safe from persecution, a level of suppression last seen in Russia four decades ago.
Sobchak’s father was Putin’s political mentor, Anatoly Sobchak, who was once the mayor of St. Petersburg. She assumed an array of often conflicting public personae before becoming one of Russia’s most prominent public affairs commentators.
Over the years, she has frequently criticized Putin’s policies, joining antigovernment protests in 2011 and running against him in the 2018 elections. But many opposition figures, including the jailed politician Aleksei A. Navalny, have accused
“I like Putin as a person, but I don’t like him as a politician,” she said in early 2012 amid the biggest wave of anti-government protests in years, underlining the ambiguity of her political agenda.officials and general governance rather than directly attacking the president.
She sharpened her attacks somewhat during her run for the presidency in 2017, saying at one meeting of her supporters: “We are against this rule, against one candidate, against Putin.” Her campaign, however, largely focused on criticizing local
Sobchak also has avoided taking a strong stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, lamenting her country’s disastrous path while often mimicking the Kremlin’s line in calling the war a “special operation.” Since the start of the war, herregular posts on social media, which sometimes draw millions of viewers, have largely avoided directly confronting its reality, leading many detractors to accuse her of abetting the Kremlin’s propaganda by distracting the Russian public.
Sobchak’s often contradictory actions have mimicked the experiences of millions of her compatriots, who have sought to find an ever-shifting balance between independent thought and conformity in Putin’s Russia. To many, including her detractors,her flight from Russia appeared to be a watershed in the country’s transformation since the start of the war in Ukraine.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/28/world/europe/ksenia-sobchak-kremlin-critic-russia.html
A government-connected Kremlin critic's flight from Russia raises
questions about who is still safe.
By Anatoly Kurmanaev, Oct. 28, 2022, NY Times
One of the best-known Russian public figures who has often criticized
the government has left the country, shocking many in a nation that
has grown accustomed to steadily diminishing dissent.
Ksenia Sobchak, who has challenged Putin at the polls while sometimes appearing to accommodate his agenda, entered Lithuania on an Israeli passport, Lithuania's foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, told reporters on Thursday. Videos posted on social media hours earlier
had appeared to show Sobchak, 40, crossing a border.
---------------A government-connected Kremlin critic's flight from Russia raises
questions about who is still safe.
By Anatoly Kurmanaev, Oct. 28, 2022, NY Times
One of the best-known Russian public figures who has often criticized
the government has left the country, shocking many in a nation that
has grown accustomed to steadily diminishing dissent.
Ksenia Sobchak, who has challenged Putin at the polls while sometimes appearing to accommodate his agenda, entered Lithuania on an Israeli passport, Lithuania's foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, told reporters on Thursday. Videos posted on social media hours earlierIn fact, Ksenia Sobchak is not a politician in Russia but much more
had appeared to show Sobchak, 40, crossing a border.
like a scandalous celebrity. She became first known as a presenter
in some controversial-bawdy TV shows in the mid-2000s, and her career
was successful mainly due to her parents and her links with Putin. Her
mother since the 1990s remains a 3rd-tier functionary in the Russia's politics <https://is.gd/enHZAk>, and her father was a bold politician
in the very early 1990s, when he became mayor of St.Petersburg. Putin
was her father's assistant <https://is.gd/ITscSK> at the time. There
was also an urban legend that Putin is her godfather, which was later refuted, but this legend helped her career (somewhat similarly to the
way "Putin's brain" legend helped promotion of controversial Dugin).
The Ksenia Sobchak's "criticizing the government" was usually more a
form of epatage behavior rather than a substantive criticism, which
also was often combined with elements of arrogance towards populace.
So her popularity within Russia is more scandalously-negative rather
then positive. As she has fled Russia recently, there were many
comments in the Russian social networks that it would be nice if she
never came back.
From an intellectual perspective, she's quite a stupid lady, - such a
kind of the Russian "liberals" who uncritically pick up some cliches
from the discourse in the Western media and seek to retell it within
Russia under a naive belief that no one within Russia except them can
read the Western media firsthand.
Some additional piquancy of her exit from Russia is also linked with
the fact that she told the domestic public for a long time that she
doesn't have any second citizenship, but, in fact, it turned out that
she managed well to get an Israeli passport, which she used to enter Lithuania.
In Russia and many post-Soviet states, Ksenia Sobchak is subject to
certain memes and jokes. The netizens used to brand her as "horse" or
"horse head", because of her appearance, e.g.: "Princess Horse:
Ksenia Sobchak was ridiculed for a photo .." <https://is.gd/DmpYBr>
(a headline in a Kazakhstan's outlet). Also many humorous web-sites
offer compilations of jokes dedicated to Ksenia Sobchak, for example <https://is.gd/drE2H7> (read it through machine translation).
Oleg Smirnov wrote:
Principles are more important than personalities!
Oleg Smirnov wrote:Almost all currently espoused Atlanticist political principles corrupt when practiced.
A government-connected Kremlin critic's flight from Russia raises questions about who is still safe.
By Anatoly Kurmanaev, Oct. 28, 2022, NY Times
One of the best-known Russian public figures who has often criticized
the government has left the country, shocking many in a nation that
has grown accustomed to steadily diminishing dissent.
Ksenia Sobchak, who has challenged Putin at the polls while sometimes appearing to accommodate his agenda, entered Lithuania on an Israeli passport, Lithuania's foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, told reporters on Thursday. Videos posted on social media hours earlierIn fact, Ksenia Sobchak is not a politician in Russia but much more
had appeared to show Sobchak, 40, crossing a border.
like a scandalous celebrity. She became first known as a presenter
in some controversial-bawdy TV shows in the mid-2000s, and her career
was successful mainly due to her parents and her links with Putin. Her mother since the 1990s remains a 3rd-tier functionary in the Russia's politics <https://is.gd/enHZAk>, and her father was a bold politician
in the very early 1990s, when he became mayor of St.Petersburg. Putin
was her father's assistant <https://is.gd/ITscSK> at the time. There
was also an urban legend that Putin is her godfather, which was later refuted, but this legend helped her career (somewhat similarly to the
way "Putin's brain" legend helped promotion of controversial Dugin).
The Ksenia Sobchak's "criticizing the government" was usually more a
form of epatage behavior rather than a substantive criticism, which
also was often combined with elements of arrogance towards populace.
So her popularity within Russia is more scandalously-negative rather
then positive. As she has fled Russia recently, there were many
comments in the Russian social networks that it would be nice if she
never came back.
From an intellectual perspective, she's quite a stupid lady, - such a
kind of the Russian "liberals" who uncritically pick up some cliches
from the discourse in the Western media and seek to retell it within
Russia under a naive belief that no one within Russia except them can
read the Western media firsthand.
Some additional piquancy of her exit from Russia is also linked with
the fact that she told the domestic public for a long time that she
doesn't have any second citizenship, but, in fact, it turned out that
she managed well to get an Israeli passport, which she used to enter Lithuania.
In Russia and many post-Soviet states, Ksenia Sobchak is subject to---------------
certain memes and jokes. The netizens used to brand her as "horse" or "horse head", because of her appearance, e.g.: "Princess Horse:
Ksenia Sobchak was ridiculed for a photo .." <https://is.gd/DmpYBr>
(a headline in a Kazakhstan's outlet). Also many humorous web-sites
offer compilations of jokes dedicated to Ksenia Sobchak, for example <https://is.gd/drE2H7> (read it through machine translation).
Principles are more important than personalities!
--
--
David P. wrote:-----------------
Oleg Smirnov wrote:So the best thing you can do is to kill yourself.
[...]
Principles are more important than personalities!
Oleg Smirnov wrote:
David P. wrote:-----------------
Oleg Smirnov wrote:So the best thing you can do is to kill yourself.
[...]
Principles are more important than personalities!
You're not my Higher Power; you're just *pretending* to be! lol
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