MOSCOW, January 10 (RIA Novosti) – Russian TV celebrity and socialite Ksenia Sobchak has said she was strip-searched at Miami Airport after a security check wrongly detected explosives on her fingers, a claim the US authorities have denied.
Sobchak, 32, formerly the host of a long-running reality show and now an anchor at an independent TV channel, claimed on Twitter she was “lost for words” when she was asked to strip naked before she was allowed to proceed to the flight to Moscow.
Sobchak said she had a spa massage with jojoba oil mixed with glycerin before boarding her flight that might have triggered the airport’s security equipment. She said she was told that this happens two or three times a day at the airport.
US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spokeswoman Sari Koshetz admitted Sobchak had been searched but denied the claims she was asked to strip, saying searches at the airport do not require any clothing to be removed.
Sobchak, known as a family friend of President Vladimir Putin, was returning from a Christmas party in Miami that attracted many Russian celebrities.
The glamorous TV presenter left her reality TV show job in 2012 and recast herself as a political activist and journalist. She has interviewed the recently released ex-oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and punk protest group Pussy Riot members who appeared in her show called "Sobchak Live" on the Dozhd channel.
