The approved challenger

摘要

THE TOPIC was "A Future Russia". The location, a modest House of Youth in Vladimir, a provincial city some 190km east of Moscow. The lecturer was Ksenia Sobchak, a 36-year-old presidential candidate who made her fortune as an "it" girl and a tv reality-show star. Wearing a sharp suit and gold-heeled stilettos, Ms Sobchak presented a rich and glamorous model of that future. The local university, she told the audience, was lagging behind even the lowliest in California. Russia should compete in biotech rather than missiles. Slipping into management-speak, she said the government should be judged on "key performance indicators".