Define “presidential hopeful.” Is this a viable candidate, or a fringe candidate? You can find fringe candidates who’ll say anything, like Lincoln Chafee making a laughing stock of himself in 2016 with his “switch to the metric system” platform, or Gary “what is Aleppo?” Johnson.
Though her father was the Vladimir Putin's patron in the nineties, and the latter has been quite respectful to that family so far. Her mother is a senator from the Putin's party, and Putin has said he didn't object against the daughter's running for presidency. I see parallels with the Roman emperor Caligula's horse situation.
“Is this a viable candidate, or a fringe candidate?”
Anyone over there thinking that Crimea, which has always been 90% plus Russian, and has been part of Russia for over 90% of Russia’s existence, belongs to Ukraine is a fringe candidate. Even most Europeans understand that it’s a waste of time to fight this battle. Other than some people caught in some Cold War time warp, Crimea is a settled case.
She is a fake candidate set up to lose and to fake the illusion of democracy. She is also Putin’s goddaughter.