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Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Russian journalist and former TV personality Ksenia Sobchak - the daughter of Vladimir Putin's ex- boss - has fled Russia for Lithuania. She escaped Russia following a raid on her home by Russian authorities. "Without any doubt, she is [in Lithuania] ... I confirm the fact," Lithuanian counterintelligence service head Darius Jauniškis told a local radio station Thursday morning.
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He said Sobchak entered Lithuania on an Israeli passport that allows her to stay for 90 days. Her late father Anatoly Sobchak was the former mayor of St. Petersburg.
According to Russian media, Sobchak left Russia Tuesday night by crossing the Belarus-Lithuania border. Her escape came after tricking Russian authorities by buying plane tickets from Moscow to Dubai via Istanbul.
According to the Moscow Times, Russian authorities were planning to arrest Sobchak at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport, but she evaded them by crossing into Belarus on her way to Lithuania.
The Russian Tass state news agency reported that Russian security services had an order to arrest Sobchak as part of an extortion case against her media director Kirill Sukhanov.
"It is clear that it's an attack on my editorial team, the last remaining free editorial team in Russia which had to be pressured," Sobchak said on Telegram.
Political analyst Sergei Markov posted a Telegram commentary that said in part, "If they can arrest the daughter of Putin's mentor ... it means there are no untouchables? For some members of the elites, an arrest warrant for Sobchak is a blazing sign in the skies."
Markov said the raid on Sobchak's home shocked the Russian elite.
Sobchak, a former socialite once known as the "Russian Paris Hilton," ran for president against Putin in 2018. She created a political party called the Party of Changes.
"We want a normal life," Sobchak said in 2018. "We won't allow our future to be stolen. We are uniting in the Party of Changes so that these changes come true."
