I’m not a stooge, says the socialite taking on Putin
IT HAS been condemned as a “sport for millionaires” and banned by China’s leaders, but now golf is being made compulsory in schools to teach children etiquette and instill good behaviour.
China has a longstanding love-hate relationship with golf, which has been vilified by the country’s Communist rulers but enjoyed by local officials.
The sport was labelled a “sport for millionaires” by Mao Tse-tung after he KSENIA SOBCHAK, the socialite turned journalist once dubbed “Russia’s Paris Hilton”, has insisted she poses a real challenge to Vladimir Putin and is not a show candidate.
Many see Ms Sobchack, 35, who this week confirmed she would run for the presidency, as a weak, Kremlin-approved substitute for Alexei Navalny, the fiery opposition leader who has been barred from running due to a dubious embezzlement conviction in February.
Mr Putin’s spokesman denied on Wednesday that the presidential administration was behind her run but also praised her as a “talented person”.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, she said her candidacy was a step toward getting rid of Mr Putin, who got his start in politics as an aide to her father Anatoly Sobchak, then head of Leningrad. She claimed the presidential administration was trying to “smother their enemy in a hug” by encouraging speculation that she was a Kremlin stooge. “I was surprised that I ran into such jealousy in my circles,” Ms Sobchak said. “I see that I can do good, I can help free political prisoners, I can raise questions that are silenced on the national level.” Mr Putin has not yet officially declared his candidacy, but he is widely expected to run and enjoys an approval rating above 80per cent. Ms Sobchak still has to gather 300,000 signatures to register. Pundits have dismissed her, however, as a “comfortable candidate” meant to lend legitimacy to the election while posing no threat of winning.
Having in her younger days appeared on the cover of Russian Playboy, starred in a show called Rich Blonde, Ms Sobchak has since transitioned into hosting political shows on the independent TV Rain. The elephant in the room is Mr Navalny, who for months has been raising pressure by rallying thousands of supporters in cities around the country. He has called Ms Sobchak a “caricature of a liberal candidate”.