page_title: Ksenia Sobchak
section_title: Russian presidential election, 2018
hierarchical_section_title: Ksenia Sobchak / Political background and activities / Russian presidential election, 2018
caption_attribution_description: English: Sobchak 2018 logo Suomi: Ksenija Sobtšakin kampanjalogo Venäjän presidentinvaaleissa 2018.
context_page_description: Ksenia Anatolyevna Sobchak is a Russian public figure, TV anchor, journalist, socialite and actress. She is the younger daughter of the first democratically elected mayor of Saint Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak, and the Russian senator Lyudmila Narusova. Sobchak became known to the wider public as a host of the reality show Dom-2 on the Russian channel TNT. She is an anchor at independent TV channel "Rain" Dozhd.
  Sobchak was the Civic Initiative's candidate for the 2018 Russian presidential election. At the age of 36, she became the youngest Russian presidential candidate in history.
context_section_description: Sobchak declared her candidacy in the Russian presidential election 2018 on 18 October 2017. Prior to the announcement of her intention to enter the Presidential race in 2018, Sobchak discussed her intention personally with Putin. She said: "With Vladimir Vladimirovich, my family has been associated with a great deal...  so I felt it right to say that I made such a decision". Putin, she said, told her that "every person has the right to make their own decisions and must be responsible for them".
  In September 2017, prior to her announcement to run, Putin said of Sobchak's presidential intentions to a press conference at the 9th BRICS summit, that "Every person has the right to nominate himself in accordance with the law. And Ksenia Sobchak is not an exception here. I respect her father Anatoly Sobchak, I believe that he was an outstanding figure in contemporary Russian history. I'm saying this without a trace of irony. He was very decent, played a big role in my own destiny. But when it comes to running for presidency, things of a personal nature cannot play any significant role. It depends on what program she's offering, if she'll actually run, and how she'll build her presidential campaign".
  Sobchak has cited the Decembrists, 19th century aristocrats who forfeited their palaces and were sentenced to exile for challenging the ultimate power of the tsar, as one of her inspirations. Some skeptics accuse Sobchak of being a pawn of Putin bent to undermine opposition candidate Aleksei Navalny; the Kremlin often handpicks a high-profile liberal candidate to run in elections as part of its policy of "managed democracy" wherein Putin attempts to control the entire process. Other skeptics suspect Sobchak's candidacy is mostly about building her brand. Sobchak did not believe she could win against Putin in 2018, but has stated she's in it for the long haul: "Of course I want to be president, I want to win, but I also want to be sincere. In a system created by Putin, it is only possible for Putin to win. I am realistic about who will become the president." Under current Russian law, Putin may not run for President for a third consecutive term in 2024, just as he was barred from running for President in 2008.
  On 15 March 2018, Sobchak  and Dmitry Gudkov announced the creation of a new party, called the Party of Changes on the basis of the party Civic Initiative. The aim was of party was to "return our freedom and your freedom". Sobchak won 1.68% of the vote in the 2018 presidential election.
caption: Sobchak 2018 logo
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