Yavlinsky doesn't see Ksenia Sobchak as rival in presidential election
MOSCOW. Nov 17 (Interfax) - It makes little sense for people who have never been engaged in politics to run in presidential elections, although everybody is entitled to propose an alternative state development program, Grigory Yavlinsky, the chairman of the federal political committee of the Yabloko party, said on Friday.
"The record of engagement in politics of people who have never been engaged in politics before has proven to have little prospects in our country. One starts doing it and then gives up, but people have already given them their votes," Yavlinsky said on the Rossiya-24 television channel when asked why he had earlier compared Ksenia Sobchak's presidential bid to Mikhail Prokhorov's campaign in 2012.
"I said this to preempt such a scenario. But anyone who sees fit to propose some other program has the right to do so," he said.
Yavlinsky said it "never occurred" to him to compare himself with Sobchak. "She is a candidate 'against everyone', while I am a candidate 'for all'. I am an opponent of Vladimir Putin, not Ksenia Sobchak. That's it," Yavlinsky said.
It was reported earlier that Yavlinsky had compared TV host Ksenia Sobchak's declared intention to run for president in 2018 to businessman Mikhail Prokhorov's presidential bid in 2012.