Playmates, Tweeters, and Yetis: Meet the Duma’s class of 2012
A boxer, a nude model, a tennis star, and a reindeer expert walk into parliament. It’s not the set-up for a bad joke, it’s Russian politics. Despite receiving a lower-than-expected share of the vote in this year’s elections, the ruling United Russia party has continued its proud tradition of packing the body with reality show-level ...
A boxer, a nude model, a tennis star, and a reindeer expert walk into parliament. It's not the set-up for a bad joke, it's Russian politics. Despite receiving a lower-than-expected share of the vote in this year's elections, the ruling United Russia party has continued its proud tradition of packing the body with reality show-level celebrities.
A boxer, a nude model, a tennis star, and a reindeer expert walk into parliament. It’s not the set-up for a bad joke, it’s Russian politics. Despite receiving a lower-than-expected share of the vote in this year’s elections, the ruling United Russia party has continued its proud tradition of packing the body with reality show-level celebrities.
The Moscow Times‘ Nickolaus von Twickel has the run-down on the new arrivals:
The list of new United Russia lawmakers includes Maria Kozhevnikova, who stars in the “Univer” television series and was Russian Playboy’s front-page girl in 2009. Before being elected into parliament, she was voted the country’s sexiest woman by the Maxim magazine this fall.[…]
Other parliamentary newcomers are former heavyweight boxer Nikolai Valuyev, who famously claimed to have uncovered evidence of a Siberian Yeti during his campaign in the Kemerovo region, tennis star Marat Safin, actors Lyudmila Maksakova and Vladimir Mashkov and Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum.
Also new to parliament will be Dmitry Khorolya, a native of the Arctic Yamal region who heads the country’s reindeer association.
In a sign that online campaigning is gaining significance, Vladimir Burmatov, who could be called United Russia’s first Twitter activist, will enter the Duma. Burmatov, who has almost 50,000 Twitter followers, rose to fame in September when he initiated a campaign with the “SPASIBOPUTINAZAETO,” or “Thank Putin for That,” hashtag, which became the first Russian-language topic to enter Twitter’s global trending top 10.
The valiant quest of Valuev — the former world heavyweight champion known as the “Beast from the East”– to track down the abominable snowman is definitely a frontrunner for my favorite oddball news story of the year.
As for Burmatov, it makes sense that United Russia would want to try to co-opt the “Twitter activist” designation from the opposition, but let’s hope he keeps it cleaner than some of his colleagues.
Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating
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