Ksenia Sobchak (Wikipedia, photo by Evgeniy Isaev)
Russian reality TV star to challenge Putin in March election
A reality TV star-turned-politician is challenging President Vladimir Putin. Ksenia Sobchak told CBS News she will be a protest candidate in the coming elections, running for the nation’s highest office this coming March.
Published: January 16, 2018, 9:18 am
“I don’t want people to vote personally for me,” Sobchak said. “I want them to vote against the system.” Alexei Navalny, the country’s other opposition figure, will not be allowed on to the ballot and Sobchak will fill the void.
Sobchak said she saw Navalny as a “friend and ally” and expressed hope that he would support her. Earlier she had said that if he managed to get on to the ballot then she would be ready to withdraw her candidacy.
In an interview with The Independent Sobchak’s protest rival Alexei Navalny had dismissed her candidacy as “unserious”.
In order for Sobchak to get on to the ballot, she will need to collect 300 000 signatures from Russian citizens. Shortly before she announced her candidacy, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said she “fulfilled all criteria” to stand, as she has no criminal record.
Sobchak’s father, Anatoly, had been both Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev’s law professor at Leningrad State University. He later became the mayor of St. Petersburg. Putin had helped Anatoly flee Russia when he was wanted on corruption charges.
Sobchak has stated that she considers Crimea to be part of Ukraine. Considering the overwhelming support for the Crimean reunification among the Russian population, it is not exactly a vote winner.
Sobchak has also called Russians “human trash” because in the first two decades of the communist era, the “country underwent a vast quantity of human purges, when the best of the best were destroyed”.
Again, her pronouncements are not something designed to attract the voters, as it conveys that Sobchak thinks that Russians are made up of genetically inferior material. It is hard to think of a better way to insult a nation.
Apart from her politically awkward statements, she regulalry gives advice about men, the British education system, nannies, literature, blockchain and BitCoin, kung fu, psychology, fitness, and contrasting hot-cold showers – “Ladies, it keeps your skin in shape”.
The campaign website of President Vladimir Putin is already up and running at putin2018.ru. Elena Shmeleva, co-chair of Putin’s campaign office, told Russian news agency TASS that plans were afoot to make his website as informative and convenient as possible.
“We want it to contain a lot of factual information related to the current projects and those projects Vladimir Putin was involved in,” she said. “We are also planning to post information on the authorized agents.”
The incumbent Russian president will be running in the coming presidential election scheduled for March 18, 2018, as an independent candidate. He also needs to collect at least 300 000 citizens’ signatures to run for his fourth term. The drive to collect signatures kicked off on January 5.
According to Andrey Kondrashov, a spokesman for Putin’s election team, more than 711 000 signatures were already registered on January 15. The election team promised however that the signature collection drive would be continued beyond those needed to run.
The signatures will have to be submitted to the Central Election Commission for verification.
According to a survey by All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center, Sobchak, 36, candidate of the Civil Initiative party, would only get 1 percent of the vote. During the survey conducted over January 8-10, the respondents were asked to indicate whom they would support if the presidential election was held this Sunday. Some 89.8 percent of respondents said they would definitely not vote for Sobchak.
The majority, around 74 percent of Russians, are ready to vote for Putin in the election.
The Communist Party’s candidate Pavel Grudinin attracted 7 percent of the votes, while 4.7 percent of respondents said they would support leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
Russia’s voter turnout is expected to reach 67 percent, according to the survey.
All rights reserved. You have permission to quote freely from the articles provided that the source (www.freewestmedia.com) is given. Photos may not be used without our consent.
Consider donating to support our work
Help us to produce more articles like this. FreeWestMedia is depending on donations from our readers to keep going. With your help, we expose the mainstream fake news agenda.
Keep your language polite. Readers from many different countries visit and contribute to Free West Media and we must therefore obey the rules in, for example, Germany. Illegal content will be deleted.
If you have been approved to post comments without preview from FWM, you are responsible for violations of any law. This means that FWM may be forced to cooperate with authorities in a possible crime investigation.
If your comments are subject to preview by FWM, please be patient. We continually review comments but depending on the time of day it can take up to several hours before your comment is reviewed.
We reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, contain slander or foul language, or are irrelevant to the discussion.
Europe
New App Helps Locate Sweden’s Historic Runestones
A new app called Swedish Runestones will help locate historical gems.
Swedish military wants to remilitarize the Åland Islands
The demilitarized autonomy has previously been known as 'the islands of peace.
NOAA Predicts Zero Sunspots for Almost the Whole 2030s
CLIMATEThe United States' government scientific organization, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), predicts zero sunspots from 2031 to 2040. This is an extreme situation that has not occurred in as long as humanity has been counting sunspots, and it leads us into uncharted territory in terms of our solar system. However, this prediction aligns with the warnings of the world-renowned solar researcher Valentina Zharkova for many years, who indicated in 2019 various signs of this catastrophic phenomenon, including the extreme hailstorms we have seen in Europe and the world this summer. The forecast and various observations this year give cause for very significant concern. In this unique analysis, Free West Media explains why.
European Nationalist Parties Forge Cooperation Ahead of EU Elections
EUROPEAN ELECTIONSOn Saturday, August 26, representatives of six European nationalist parties gathered in Budapest. The meeting was initiated by the Hungarian party Mi Hazánk and took place in the national parliament. Representatives of the parties signed a joint declaration that not only reaffirms the parties' friendship but also their unity on a range of complex political issues. A surprisingly clear and radical manifesto was established. The hope is that this cooperation will lead to success in the EU elections and eventually result in the formation of a group in the European Parliament. For Swedish nationalism, this meeting marks a success as Sweden, for the first time, has a party represented in a leading nationalist cooperation in Europe. Free West Media was present at this historic event.
Turkey Believes Sweden Hasn’t Done Enough
Sweden will have to wait a bit longer for NATO membership, according to Turkey's Justice Minister Jilmaz Tunc. First, Sweden must extradite the "terrorists" Turkey wants and stop the desecration of the Quran.
Swedish Weapon Takes Down Russia’s Best Attack Helicopter
The Russian attack helicopter Ka-52 is considered one of the world's best and has struck fear in Ukraine, where it has hunted down tanks and other armored vehicles, often beyond the range of many light anti-aircraft systems. However, it has met its match in the Swedish air defense missile system RBS 70, which has quickly led to significant losses for the Russian helicopter forces.
The Sun Drives Earth’s Climate, Not Carbon Dioxide
Top Researchers Push Back Against Climate Lies."The correlation is as clear as day," explained the Israeli astrophysicist Nir Shaviv, who was hailed by the establishment, before his interview with Forbes was hastily deleted. What he says contradicts the climate narrative, which points to humans as responsible for Earth's climate. Shaviv firmly asserts that it is the sun that controls the climate, something that can be scientifically proven in many ways. Contrary to the popular belief, the sun's influence on Earth has, in recent years, caused unusually cold and rainy weather, a trend that solar researchers warn will worsen significantly in the coming decades. The sun has exhibited an unusually low activity since 2016, during Solar Cycle 24, which was the weakest in a century.
Strong Confidence in German AfD
Alternative for Germany (AfD) held a party conference on July 29-30 to select candidates for the upcoming EU election next year. EU Parliament member Maximilian Krah, belonging to the party's more radical, ethnonationalist faction, was appointed as the top candidate. The party's two spokespersons delivered powerful speeches criticizing the EU's failed migration policy and trade sanctions that isolate Europe and Germany from the rest of the world. They argued that it's time for the EU to return a significant portion of its power to national parliaments. However, they have dropped the demand for Germany to exit the EU.
The Establishment Wants to Ban Germany’s Second Largest Party – for the Sake of Democracy
The rising popularity of AfD has raised strong concerns within the establishment. Despite lies and demonization in the media and isolation from the overall political establishment, the party continues to grow. Certain representatives of the party are accused of becoming increasingly "extreme," and in an unusual move, the influential weekly newspaper Der Spiegel demanded that AfD be "banned."
Dutch FvD break through the media blockade
What is happening in the Netherlands? It is often difficult to follow events in other countries, especially when distorted by system media. We give Forum for Democracy (FvD) the opportunity to speak out on the political situation in the Netherlands and the staunch resistance they face in trying to save the country.
No comments.
By submitting a comment you grant Free West Media a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution. Inappropriate and irrelevant comments will be removed at an admin’s discretion. Your email is used for verification purposes only, it will never be shared.