Another Russian socialite declares intent to grab Putin’s job

• Putin slams US over nuclear treaties
• Microsoft Philanthropies donates $1 billion in cloud computing resources
• Kremlin comments on Putin’s absence from UN General Assembly session
• Putin's proposed U.N. Ukraine peacekeepers must have full access: Merkel

Gordon made the announcement by posting a video on YouTube on Monday. She also made several comments to Russian news agencies, put promised to convene a proper news conference in the nearest future.

Russian journalist, rights activist, singer-songwriter and all-round celebrity Yekaterina Gordon has announced she plans to run in the 2018 presidential race on a ticket of protecting women’s and children’s rights.

“My name is Yekaterina Gordon, I am 37 and I have decided to exercise my right to propose my candidacy for the post of President of the Russian Federation,” she said in her video. She also stated that she has had two children, worked as a journalist for 10 years and owns a law firm that has been defending the rights of women and children over the past five years.

Gordon says she wants to build her whole presidential program around the issue of children’s and women’s rights and become “a voice for women whose rights have been violated.” Also on Monday Gordon launched her campaign web-site Gordonzabab.ru (roughly meaning “Gordon for women”) with a slogan “The rights of women and children are a mirror of Russian reality.”

Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said in comments that Gordon’s possible future registration as a presidential candidate was completely in line with the Constitution. When reporters pointed out that the hopeful has no experience in politics, Peskov said that no such experience is legally required.

Gordon herself also made several press comments in which she emphasized that her decision to run had not been coordinated with the Russian Presidential Administration and alleged that she must be the only presidential hopeful so far who can say so.

When reporters pointed out that Gordon’s announcement came shortly after a similar move by another Russian socialite – glossy magazine editor and TV anchor Kseniya Sobchak – Gordon emphasized that the two events were not connected in any way.