Sobchak Demands Explanation from Latvian Foreign Minister Over Entry Ban
Russian TV host Ksenia Sobchak has criticised Latvia's decision to bar her and her partner, theatre director Konstantin Bogomolov, from entering the country. Foreign Minister Baiba Braže placed both on Latvia's list of undesirable persons.
Russian television and online show host Ksenia Sobchak has publicly demanded that Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže (of the Unity party, JV) explain why she and her partner, theatre director Konstantin Bogomolov, have been denied entry to Latvia. The minister announced on Saturday that both had been added to Latvia's list of undesirable persons. Sobchak voiced her displeasure on her Telegram channel.
The minister's decision
Braže said the decision was based on Section 104, Part 3, Clause 1 of the Immigration Law. It provides that the foreign minister decides on adding a foreign national to the list of undesirable persons. Sobchak is banned from entering Latvia for an indefinite period. Bogomolov has previously staged productions at the Liepāja Theatre.
During the war years, Latvia's foreign ministers have regularly made similar decisions against entertainment industry figures who have shown support for the policies of aggressor states.
Sobchak's response
Sobchak sarcastically asked Braže whether Latvia dislikes her family but loves Bozena Rynska and Kirill Serebrennikov. She said she stopped travelling to Latvia long ago but wants a justification. She questioned whether such a decision can be made without a broader explanation and accused officials of, in her view, creating PR for themselves.
She also mocked Latvia's efforts to counter security risks posed by Russia, linking them to her interviews and Bogomolov's theatre productions, writing: "Brave Latvian riflemen." Sobchak claimed Latvians should be grateful to Russians who, in her words, supported the Baltic economy for years, brought celebrities to Latvia and invested in local show business. She added that she has no wish to go to Latvia and that life in Russia is going well for her.
Who Sobchak is
Sobchak has also been involved in Russian politics and was at one time presented as an opposition figure to President Vladimir Putin. The late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was murdered, regarded her more as a political manoeuvre by Putin's regime to draw votes away from the genuine opposition. Her father, Anatoly Sobchak, was mayor of St Petersburg, in whose office Putin began his political career.
