Ksenia Sobchak will not save Putin when the Russian people turn against him

In 1992 Putin, whilst Deputy Mayor of St. Petersberg under Mayor Anatoly Sobchak, his former law professor, Putin commissioned a documentary about himself called "Power".

As Tim Molloy reports,

"In the film he commissioned, Putin, who was then deputy mayor, assured hungry residents that food was on its way.
.... But, as seen in the excerpt below from Putin’s Way, most of the promised food never arrived" (Frontline : January 12, 2015) (my emphasis)

We now learn from Shaun Walker that,

"Ksenia Sobchak, the [socialite] daughter of Vladimir Putin’s political mentor [Anatoly Sobchak, and rumoured to be Putin's God-daughter], has said she will stand in Russia’s presidential election next March, which Putin is expected to win.
...
Analysts said her candidacy looked like a Kremlin-backed “spoiler” campaign to boost the legitimacy of the elections and split the liberal opposition" (The Guardian : Wednesday 18 October 2017)

And as reported by Andrew Roth,

"Dmitry Peskov (left), Putin’s personal spokesman, told the channel [TV Rain] that her candidacy was seen as legitimate by the Kremlin." (Washington Post : October 18, 2017) (my emphasis) 

Is Putin taking a leaf out of the book of US president Donald Trump, who elected both his daughter, Ivanka Trump, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to senior positions in the White House?

Or is Putin showing the same contempt for the Russian people which he showed when pocketing millions of dollars in 1992 that was meant to assuage the hunger of the Russian people of St Petersberg. 

That Putin was protected by Anatoly Sobchak, father of Ksenia Sochak, even in light of all the evidence collected by Marine Salye (left), and which showed just how Putin and his cohorts embezzeled millions of dollars from the hungry residents of St. Petersberg in 1992, surely must be known by Ksenia Sobchak.

Indeed, the very financial legacy she inherited from her father, and which has allowed her to live her lavish lifestyle, is tainted by the fact that some of those monies she inherited from her father derives from that very embezzelment that Putin and his cohorts, including her father, perpetrated in 1992.

 Yet, as Andrew Roth further reports,

"In a campaign statement in the Russian daily Vedomosti that barely mentioned Putin and focused instead on public dissatisfaction with Russian politics, she said that she was “outside of ideology” and not a fan of Russia’s annexation of Crimea (though she denied being against it)."(ibid Andrew Roth) (my empahsis)

But, unlike Navalny (right), who claims that,

" ...   if he is elected president [of Russia], he is ready to withdraw Russian troops from the occupied areas of eastern Ukraine and hold a fair referendum in the Russian-annexed Crimea, according to the Russian independent television channel Dozhd." (UNIAN : 09 June 2017) (my emphasis)

nothing is being said by Ksenia Sobchak about Putin's war with Ukraine.

And whilst Ksenia Sobchak is deafeningly silent about Putin's war with Ukraine in the Donbas,

• Russia's hybrid military forces attacked Ukrainian army positions in Donbas 14 times in the past 24 hours, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as wounded in action (WIA), according to the press service of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) Headquarters.(UNIAN: 22 October 2017) 
• Russia's hybrid military forces were most active in the Mariupol sector on Monday, October 23, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as wounded in action (WIA), according to the press center of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) Headquarters. (UNIAN : 23 October)
• Russia's hybrid military forces attacked Ukrainian army positions in Donbas 22 times on Monday, October 23, as a result of which one Ukrainian soldier was wounded, according to the press center of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) Headquarters.(UNIAN : 24 October)

As Ksenia Sobchak is becoming the darling of Putin's propaganda TV network as an eligible presidential candidate, Andrew Osborn and Andrey Ostroukh report that,

"Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny held a political rally on Sunday [21 October], hours after being released from jail and pledged to continue his presidential campaign despite the authorities saying he is ineligible to stand.

.....

“We have more right to take part in the elections than all the other candidates combined,” Navalny wrote on his website." (Reuters : October 22, 2017) (my emphasis)

Navalny being arrested October 2, 2017

Putin may have spiked Navalny's chances of appearing on the ballot paper as a candidate for the Russian presidency, and cynically placed his presumed God-daughter, Ksenia Sobchak, on that ballot paper, but he has not yet managed, together with US president Donald Trump, to spike the US sanctions against himself and his 'siloviki' for his illegal annexation of Ukrainian Crimea, and his ongoing war with Ukraine in the Donbas.

 As stated yesterday by Jessica Tarlov (left),

"America must speak up louder in opposition to Putin’s twisted attempt to use U.N. peacekeepers to achieve his own strategic interests. We’ve heard from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about how critical it is that we give our full support to Ukraine. " (Fox News : 23 October 2017)

And the US Senate, Congress, and Robert Mueller, continues to accumulate a mountain of evidence pointing to the collusion between Trump and his associates, and Putin and his 'siloviki', that gained the White House for Trump, in return for Trump releasing Putin from those US sanctions.

Putin now has almost to completely rely on the changing political climate in the EU moving in the direction of the lifting of EU sanctions against himself and his 'siloviki' clique.

But will the cynical throwing of Ksenia Sobchak to the Russian people as a political 'sex-symbol' opponent, a "Let them eat cake" political moment in the illusory presidential election campaign in Russia, be enough to deflect the eyes of the Russian people from their current economic sufferings, economic sufferings that Putin's actions in Crimea and the Donbas brought upon the Russian people?

As reported in the Moscow Times,

"... behind encouraging GDP demand and retail trade numbers Russians have become increasingly hooked on credits to keep their shopping baskets full, be that a basket of luxury items or a minimum subsistence one." (Moscow Times : Oct 10, 2017) (my emphasis)

Just as in 1992, when Putin and his kleptocratic cohorts, including Anatoly Sobchak, stole millions from from the hungry residents of St. Petersberg so, too, is Putin's kleptocracy now still stealing billions from the hungry people of Russia.

Putin's fear of how the Russian people will respond when he 'automatically' wins next years' Russian presidential election has forced him to throw the political 'sex-symbol', Ksenia Sobchak, into the Russian presidential race.

But Ksenia Sobchak will not save Putin when the Russian people turn against him.

(to be continued)