A political consultant who worked on Bernie Sanders' U.S. presidential campaign in 2016 is slated to aid Russian opposition candidate Ksenia Sobchak’s presidential bid in March 2018 elections.

Socialite and former reality television host Sobchak announced her run for the Russian presidency on her television show on the opposition-leaning Dozhd TV network on Wednesday.



The Bell news outlet cited two sources as saying that Vitaly Shkliarov, a political consultant who worked on the Bernie Sanders campaign in the 2016 U.S. presidential race will work on Sobchak’s campaign.



Shkliarov, 41, has previously worked on campaigns to elect German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Barack Obama before taking a job with Sanders.



The Belarusian-born consultant helped two opposition politicians gain an unprecedented number of seats in the Moscow municipal elections in September.

