Putin’s granddaughter fled on foot to Lithuania

Ksenia Sopetjak, a well-known TV personality and journalist who was close to the Putin family, was reported to have fled to Lithuania on Thursday. CCTV footage shows it running across the border between Belarus and Lithuania, According to the Guardian newspaper.

According to several international media, the Lithuanian authorities also confirm that Sopetjak is in the country, and that she entered with an Israeli passport. The border with Lithuania is closed to Russian citizens.

Ksenia Sobjak ran away The country after a search of her apartment, in connection with allegations of financial crimes against an executive of a media company where she works.

According to CNN, she wrote On the Telegram messaging service shortly before the escape, he said the accusations were nonsense and would be dismissed – and that otherwise it was an attack on “Russia’s last free editorial office”.

Ksenia Sobtjak is the daughter To Anatoly Sobtjak, the former mayor of Saint Petersburg, who was Putin’s president at the beginning of his career, whom Putin also described as his mentor.

She is also said to be Putin’s granddaughter, something that has never been confirmed, but the good relations between the families made the opposition in Russia view Ksenia Sobtjak with skepticism, despite her participation in opposition protests and mass meetings in the 2010s.

When I ran for president in 2018 Against Vladimir Putin, it was seen in parts of the opposition as a way to legitimize the elections.

According to Russian media Sopetak allegedly tricked the Russian authorities into buying plane tickets from Moscow to Dubai via Istanbul, but went instead to Belarus and Lithuania.