Fyodorova taking part in the swimsuit competition
in the pageant Wednesday night.
Posted on 05/30/2002 5:35:24 PM PDT by Shermy
She's well-versed in weapons and hand-to-hand combat. She's charming, loves Dostoevsky, orchids and dogs, and knows how to keep state secrets.
Oh, and she's the most beautiful woman in the world.
Oksana Fyodorova, 24, has been crowned Miss Universe 2002 at a glitzy ceremony, sweeping away 74 other contestants to become the first Russian to win the title.
The dark-haired, green-eyed St. Petersburger is also probably the first Miss Universe who's a ranking police lieutenant, with six months of detective experience under her belt.
Fyodorova, wearing a flowing white evening dress, made the pageant crowd roar Wednesday night when she was asked the final question: "What makes you blush?"
"When I say the wrong things!" Fyodorova replied.
Many of the other contestants said they didn't blush.
The 1.80-meter-tall Fyodorova was the only European among the five finalists at the pageant in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The others were from Panama, China, South Africa and Venezuela.
She wins $250,000 in cash as well as promotional contracts and a scholarship to the School for Film and Television in New York, where she gets a luxury riverside apartment for a year.
"I feel good. I haven't been this happy in a long time," she said in Russian at a news conference afterward, according to The Associated Press. "I am completely shocked. This is the first time my country has ever won."
Russian Yulia Kurochkina won the competing Miss World contest in 1991.
Fyodorova, a postgraduate student in civil law, already holds the title of Miss Russia 2001 and Miss St. Petersburg 1999. When she won the Miss Russia title, Russian television showed her in a drab green police uniform standing beside a giant portrait of President Vladimir Putin in her office. But she insists she has no connections to the president.
She said at the pageant that she has a 38-year-old boyfriend named Vladimir.
Fyodorova's victory led Russian television news programs throughout the day Thursday. On NTV, Vladimir Salnikov, head of the Interior Ministry University, proudly read excerpts from her school records: "Physically in good condition. Knows the rules for maintaining and firing weapons. ... Knows how to keep state secrets."
He boasted about her speed at taking apart and assembling a Kalashnikov assault rifle on RTR.
"All her students liked her," Yevgeny Protsenko, head of the civil law department where Fyodorova studies at the St. Petersburg Police Academy, said in an interview. "We had big hopes for her victory because she is such a purposeful, persistent and charming girl."
He said Fyodorova is writing her dissertation on regulating privacy and security activities.
"I cannot say that her victory was unexpected. We believed in her," he added. "But on the other hand, it must have been tough competing with 74 countries."
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was the only politician to publicly comment on Fyodorova's victory.
"I welcome this. I was not surprised that a Russian won that contest," he said in London, where he was attending a conference on the weightier subject of capital flight and money laundering.
"Russians can win in all kinds of competitions, starting with mathematics and Olympics, with young boys and girls, and all the way to beauty contests," he said, according to local news reports.
Fyodorova, an only child raised by her mother, was born in Pskov and moved to St. Petersburg at the age of 18.
She said in an interview last year that she feels most at home in the imperial capital.
"My grandparents lived in Leningrad and survived the blockade here," she said. "I think a genie cast his spell on me when I came here and I fell in love with this city."
She said she chose a career in law enforcement because it gave her confidence and discipline. She eventually wants to become a lawyer and mother.
"In Russia, a woman should not only be beautiful but also know how to stand up for herself," she said.
Marina Kruglova, vice president of the Miss Russia pageant, said Thursday that Fyodorova's grace and intelligence had helped her steal the judges' hearts.
"She was the most natural of all the girls who stood on stage like Barbie dolls," she said.
Fyodorova, the 51st Miss Universe, takes the crown from Puerto Rican Denise Quinones. The first runner-up was Miss Panama, Justine Pasek.
Irina Titova contributed to this report from St. Petersburg.
Yep. AROOOOOOOOOOH!
Yeah but I should have gotten their phone numbers when I had a chance. I remembered what Sefton in Stalag 17 said about there being "Nothing like the hot blood of a Cossack woman."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.