Yekaterina Gordon, a 37-year-old journalist and singer-songwriter with her own law firm, on Monday announced she would be putting herself forward as a candidate for presidential elections in March 2018.
The announcement comes less than two weeks after celebrity Ksenia Sobchak placed her presidential bid, in a controversial move which critics say is meant to energize an otherwise largely predictable 2018 vote. Though he has not yet announced his candidacy, President Vladimir Putin is widely expected to run — and win.
Gordon, who is not affiliated with any political party, will need to collect 300,000 signatures in order to register as an independent candidate.
“I am not a representative of glamour, I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth,” Gordon said in the announcement video in an apparent dig at Sobchak’s status.
Gordon earlier made headlines for getting involved in a heated verbal altercation with Sobchak during a 2008 radio interview.
Claiming that she “will likely be the only candidate who wasn’t approved by the Presidential Administration,” Gordon criticized both pro- and anti-Kremlin politicians for pursuing ulterior motives.
She touted her five years of experience defending women’s and children’s rights through her law firm that specializes in family law as the motivation for her pro-woman platform.
“I know how our judicial system works in practice,” Gordon stressed. “We are a country of single mothers whom no one cares about.”
Curiously, her campaign website address, “Gordonzabab.ru” (Gordon for Women), uses the pejorative Russian word for “women” (baba).
