Kseniya Anatolyevna Sobchak was born on born november 5, 1981 in St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad), Russia (then Soviet Union) and is the daughter of the former capital city's first democratically elected Mayor, Anatoly Sobchak. As a child she attended the Mariinsky Theatre ballet school and Hermitage Museum's art school. In 1998, Kseniya left Herzen University to pursue her socio-political education attending Saint Petersburg State University's Department of International Relations. In 2001 Sobchak left St. Petersburg and moved to Moscow where she enrolled in the International Relations program at Moscow State Institute of International Relations. In 2002 she followed her education up by enrolling into a masters program in the department of politics at the same State Institute of International Relations.
Ksenia is currently a host of several TV shows in Russia such as "Dom-2" (House-2), similar to Big Brother in Europe and the States and the most successful reality show on russian television, and "The Blonde in Chocolate", a E! Television style reality show based on Ksenia's life. She is also a close family friend of Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin and has been called both Russia's "IT" girl as well as the face of modern Russia all the while drawing frequent comparissons to American socialite Paris Hilton.
Sobchak seems to make no effort to seperate herself from the comparissons to the american star, even going as far as to provide her voice in the Russian dubbed version of Hilton's film "National Lampoon's Pledge This!". While both Ksenia and Hilton portray the attitude of vacuous airheads in the public eye, Sobchak's background isn't quite as posh as her american counterpart.
'Yes, it is true that I love shopping and I care about my manicure,' Ksenia says, 'But then I also love books and theatre and talking about politics. For me, there's no contradiction here; they're just different sides of my character. Whatever people may think of me, I don't live like some princess in an ivory tower.
In 1991, when Ksenia was just ten years old, her father, Anatoly Sobchak, a lawyer and early advocate of free-market reform in the former Soviet Union, was elected as mayor of St Petersburg (former Leningrad). Anatoly appointed Vladimir Putin his deputy. For the five years preceeding his election Anatoly Sobchak was one of the most powerful men in his country.
In 1996 Anatoly was voted out of office and the following year criminal investigations began into allegations of bribery and abuse of power. During this stressful time Sobchak suffered a heart attack and was flown to France for medical treatment. He returned home in 1999. When his old ally Putin came to power he cleared all charges leveraged against Sobchak; and soon after having his name cleared Sobchak died.
Because of her father's rise and fall and the scandal that surrounded him Ksenia has developed a thick skin. Right now in Russian media it is nearly impossible to escape her image, on television or in print media magazines. Having all this attention and fame breeds lots of admiration as well as public resentment. When asked if this bothers her, Ksenia replies, "No. What I really dislike is when anyone is indifferent. As long as I'm getting a reaction, it's OK. When people are nasty I don't feel anything."
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