Vladimir Putin’s ‘goddaughter’ is reported to have obtained foreign citizenship since his invasion of Ukraine.
Ksenia Sobchak, 40, a prominent TV presenter and the country's leading woman opposition politician who stood against Putin in the 2018 presidential election, has “secured Israeli citizenship”.
She is also reported to have sold an elite apartment in Moscow for more than $10million (£7.6m).
Sobchak has known Putin since she was a child, and he attended her baptism.
Her late father Anatoli Sobchak was Putin’s law professor, and his mentor who gave the warmonger his first foothold in politics as deputy mayor of St Petersburg.
While she has strongly opposed his policies in recent years, Putin has close and longstanding ties to her family.
Putin even smuggled her father Anatoly Sobchak out of Russia to get medical treatment in the West at a time when his patron was wanted for alleged corruption.
Putin was later pictured at Anatoly Sobchak’s funeral, alongside Ksenia, and her mother Lyudmila Narusova, a Russian senator in 2000.
Reports in Israel today, echoed in Russia, say Ksenia Sobchak has obtained citizenship for herself and her young son.
Her maternal family has Jewish links.
In early March, she left Russia “on holiday” and it was later confirmed that she had gone to Israel .
Soon afterwards she said: “I am Russian, I am a citizen of Russia.
“I do not emigrate anywhere, I have no other citizenships.”
Today she posted that she was currently in Russia, and criticised the reports of Israeli citizenship as coming from Putin’s “propaganda” media - but did not deny them.
She posted a video showing herself beside the Moscow River with ice lumps in the water mocking claims she was close to the River Jordan.
She did not comment on the reported flat sale.
Despite this, one source said she “feared repression” in Putin’s Russia, and had, like many liberal-leaning Russians, arranged an escape route.
When she stood against Putin, she first went to see him and discuss her candidacy.
She came fourth in a poll widely seen as heavily rigged in Putin’s favour.
After the war began, Ksenia expressed concern for her mother who was the first major Russian figure to stand up and condemn the war.
She accused Putin’s state TV channels of “shameless lies” over its coverage .
And she revealed that 96 out of 100 conscripts were killed in one attack.
She accused him of failing to arrange the return home of bodies of slain soldiers which, she alleged, are being gnawed by stray dogs.
Narusova - seen as a Putin family friend - angrily hit out at the latest Moscow media crackdown which has blocked key independent news outlets.
Ksenia, who earlier posed for Playboy, posted from Israel: “Mama! I am proud of you, and I am very worried for you. Very.”
If she obtained a second, Israeli citizenship, it would bar Ksenia from standing in a future Russian presidential election.
