- Socialite Ksenia Sobchak, rumored to be Putin’s god daughter, attended a now-infamous Russian party.
- Many celebrities have offered groveling apologies after the “almost naked” party sparked a backlash.
- Sobchak is also releasing statements in a rush to smooth things over.
Putin’s rumored god-daughter is one of the celebrities to scandalize conservative Russia by attending a raunchy and now-infamous party.
Ksenia Sobchak, a journalist, socialite and one-time presidential candidateis now undertaking considerable damage control after it turns out she too was at the “almost naked” party, as it was dubbed.
The risqué $11,000-a-ticket party invited the cream of Russian celebrity and influencer circles to show up wearing as little as they could manage.
The rapper Vacio sported nothing but a pair of sneakers and a carefully placed sock, according to The Washington Post.
It set off a backlash from conservative commentators and politicians, who accused partygoers of flaunting Russia’s infamous anti-LGBTQ propaganda laws. Critics also scorned the optics of the lavish affair in contrast with the lives of ordinary Russians, especially those fighting on the front lines in Ukraine.
The storm has led to the heavy consequences for attendees.
Many have seen their brand deals and peformances canceled, while Vacio, the rapper, was jailed for 15 days, The Guardian reported.
Meanwhile, the party’s organizer — influencer Anastasia “Nastya” Ivleeva — faces a class-action lawsuit in which plaintiffs are demanding she pay $11 million to a veterans’ charity, as independent Russian outlet Meduza reported.
Ivleeva, like other celebrities involved, has since posted a groveling apology to social media.
Sobchak has also reacted, offering a partial apology while seeking to defend Ivleeva.
The day after the party, as the backlash started, Sobchak posted defiantly to her Telegram accountsaying: “Where and when adults go with their butts naked is their personal business,” according to The Washington Post’s translation.
She argued that there is always war and killing happening somewhere in the world, and that doesn’t mean that people can’t drink Champagne.
The post was accompanied by a video of a woman viewed from the rear — presumably Sobchak herself at the party — wearing a revealing sheer black dress.
A few days later, public outrage did not appear to have let up, and Sobchak released another video.
This time, she implied the crowd was a rougher set than she expected from Ivleeva’s parties, with “a lot of tastelessness” among them.
Allowing images from the party to be published was in poor taste, she said. “You always need to choose carefully the right time, and this is not the right time,” she said. She apologized “if someone was offended by my appearance.”
But she also warned against scapegoating everyone there on the basis of a “stupid accident,” she said, according to Meduza’s translation.
The reaction to the party shows that almost nobody — not even the most beloved celebrity — is immune to fierce backlash in conservative Russia. But there may be a reason Sobchak can afford not to grovel too hard in response to the furore.
She is well known for her connection to Putin. Her late father, the former mayor of St Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak, was credited with ushering Putin onto the national political stage, earning Putin’s ongoing admiration in the process. Since then, persistent rumors have suggested that Sobchak asked Putin to be her godfather.
The connection, whether formal or not, may well have allowed her a little more leeway.
“She has always got away with stuff, and it’s always been understood that Putin’s presidential administration made sure she didn’t get into too much trouble,” Dr Jade McGlynn, a researcher into Russian politics, told Business Insider in an earlier interview.
Sobchak was praised by Putin in 2017 when she announced her candidacy for the presidency — a move that barely threatened his power. According to McGlynn, her position as a rich party girl likely made the progressive and pro-democracy movements seem unserious compared to his campaign.
Other political rivals have faced much harsher treatment — most notably Alexey Navalnywho was almost killed in a poisoning widely blamed on the Russian security services and is now in an Arctic penal colony.
A lower-profile candidate was this week blocked from running in the upcoming presidential election after officials said they found typos and other mistakes in her paperwork.
Sobchak has also been able to vocally support LGBTQ rights. But in 2022, she briefly fled to Lithuania after her commercial director was arrested. It came a few months after she had expressed concern over the invasion of Ukraine.
A spokesperson for Sobchak did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
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