Ksenia Sobchak is not a person of interest in an ongoing extortion investigation, sources tell RBC
Ksenia Sobchak. © Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Former Russian presidential candidate and opposition figure Ksenia Sobchak is not a suspect in an ongoing criminal extortion case, RBC reported on Friday after the journalist fled the country earlier this week.
Citing sources “close to” Russia’s Interior Ministry and claiming to have knowledge on the ongoing investigation, the news outlet said there are currently “no complaints” against Sobchak and that she has “nothing to do” with the extortion probe.
Several media outlets reported on Wednesday that the journalist was a person of interest in an extortion scheme after the commercial manager of her ‘Ostorozhno Media’ (Beware Media) group, Kirill Sukhanov, was arrested.
Former Russian Tatler editor-in-chief Arian Romanovsky was also arrested for allegedly demanding some 11 million rubles ($178,000) from Sergey Chemezov, the head of the Russian state-controlled technology conglomerate Rostec.
Sobchak has denied any connection to the extortion scheme, which, according to prosecutors who spoke with TASS, involved demanding money in exchange for guarantees that Sukhanov and Romanovsky’s Telegram channel ‘Tushite Svet’ (‘Lights out’), would not receive critical coverage. The two men now face up to 15 years in prison.
As the news of the arrests broke, it was also revealed that authorities had conducted a search of Sobchak’s private villa outside Moscow on Wednesday. The journalist herself fled the country the day before, apparently going through Belarus and into Lithuania.
Sobchak has stated on social media that she believes the cases against the two men to be part of a pressure campaign against Russian journalists and an attack on “the last free newsroom” in Russia.
Ksenia Sobchak is the daughter of Anatoly Sobchak, who served as mayor of St. Petersburg in the 1990s and is considered President Vladimir Putin’s political mentor. She made a successful media career in Russia and became a recognized figure in the liberal opposition. In 2018 she ran for president, garnering 1.7% of the vote.
