The Celebrity Candidate in Russia’s Election Is Struggling to Be Taken Seriously

The Celebrity Candidate in Russia’s Election Is Struggling to Be Taken Seriously
Opposition leaders Sergey Parkhomenko, Alexey Navalny, Ilya Yashin and Ksenia Sobchak take part in a televised debate, Moscow, Oct. 22, 2012 (AP photo by Sergey Ponomarev).

In this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein, managing editor, Frederick Deknatel, and associate editor, Omar H. Rahman, discuss the week’s big news, including the firing of U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the escalating tensions between London and Moscow after a former Russian spy was poisoned with a lethal nerve agent in the United Kingdom. For the Report, Natalie Rouland talks with Peter Dörrie about Ksenia Sobchak, the celebrity-turned-politician challenging Vladimir Putin in Russia’s presidential election. Is Sobchak an opportunistic stalking horse for the Kremlin, or a rising force for Russia’s beleaguered opposition?

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Relevant Articles on WPR:

Is Putin’s Celebrity Challenger the Future of Russia’s Opposition?

With Tillerson’s Ouster, an Unbound Trump Gets Back to ‘America First’
The Dip in U.K.-Russia Relations Shouldn’t Come as a Surprise
Could China’s Huge Belt and Road Initiative Precipitate a New Cold War?

Trend Lines is produced and edited by Peter Dörrie, a freelance journalist and analyst focusing on security and resource politics in Africa. You can follow him on Twitter at @peterdoerrie.

To send feedback or questions, email us at podcast@worldpoliticsreview.com.