I posted the picture using the following html, you just need to remove the space between the greater then and less than symbols.
< img src="http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20020530/i/1022733237.3489841228.jpg" >
Posted on 05/30/2002 12:32:33 PM PDT by mondonico
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russians reveled Thursday in the news that a sharpshooting St. Petersburg cop was crowned Miss Universe (news - web sites), saying it was about time the world took notice of the fabulous women who grew up behind the Iron Curtain.
Oxana Fedorova, a 24-year-old senior police lieutenant who grew up in the provincial town of Pskov won the diamond-studded tiara Wednesday at the pageant in Puerto Rico, out-dazzling a field of 74 other hopefuls.
"It means they have officially recognized what is absolutely obvious and we already knew: that Russia has beautiful women," said Lena Myasnikova, editor of the Russian edition of racy style bible Cosmopolitan.
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was "not surprised."
"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," the Nobel peace prize laureate said during a stop in London for a conference.
Fedorova is no mere beauty, but a pistol-packing graduate student at St. Petersburg's Interior Ministry Academy, with the sort of background that would make James Bond sweat.
HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT, DOCTORAL THESIS
She was probably the only contestant with a police badge in hand-to-hand combat, and the only one defending a doctoral thesis on "civil law and the regulation of the activities of private security forces in the Russian Federation."
Russian television alternated footage of her as she was crowned wearing a silver gown in San Juan, with shots of her looking fashion-model elegant in a standard-issue olive drab police uniform: black necktie, white shirt, mid-thigh skirt, dark tights and knee-high black leather boots.
In one shot, the camera pans from her squinting eye, down the length of her uniformed arm to a manicured hand that squeezes off a 9 mm pistol round. Bang!
Next, she is shown doing aerobics in a white spandex bikini.
"That a Russian woman is not just beautiful, but also smart and energetic, this is typical," said Myasnikova.
"Seventy years of socialism made Russian women fighters. They had to fight for everything: to get a nice blouse, to look pretty without any makeup, to try and make your apartment cozy when everything is leaking and falling apart, to feed your family when there was nothing for sale in the shops."
Fedorova has won a six figure cash prize, use of a New York apartment and a contract for speaking engagements worldwide.
But at the St. Petersburg academy, officials expected her to continue her law enforcement career, in a country where police can make less than $100 a month. She is due for a promotion to captain in August, presumably another Miss Universe first.
"I think this will improve the quality of our police force," Maj. Gen. Khillar Loit, deputy director of the academy, told Reuters. "Now the world knows that we, the police, know not only how to work, but also how to win beauty contests."
Its not your father's russian police.
...but I wouldn't kick her out of bed for eating crackers.
...crackers agrees with me ;-)
Anybody who's ever been there can confirm this emphatically. It ain't all babushkas baby.
"Oh wait I was having a wide awake, eyes opened daytime nightmare. Wow,what a relief I almost scared myself".
And smart!
I love this quote from the Russian fashion editor. Socialism is not good for women or other living things. :)
I think most of the fellas in this thread are more interested in her ....er, marital arts skills.
We were always trained to not squint through one eye. We were also encouraged to use both hands, when possible, because it creates a more stable shooting platform.
Oh, I see what you're talking about now. Nevermind.
I wonder how many of Oxana's countrymen are also privileged to carry a similar weapon?
</wet blanket mode>
Hype, in a beauty contest? I am shocked...shocked, I tellya...
But you're quite correct, especially inasmuch as I am, after all, only interested in her for her mind...
(Yet another thumping sound).
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