Maria Sergeyeva, a 24-year-old Russian Philosophy student, is now an internet sensation both home and abroad. Maria Sergeyeva who has the ambition to be Russia’s President or at least Prime Minister is becoming a symbol of Russia’s youth patriotism and nationalism.
Sergeyeva caught the attention of the medias for not only spearheading the economy-staggering Russia’s nationalistic youth movements to ardently support Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (and President Dmitry Medvedev) but also her glamorous look.
Bombastic Blonde of the Blogosphere: The New Patriotic Russian Youth
“With Hollywood looks and belligerent rhetoric befitting a Komsomol rally, Sergeyeva, 24, has become the new face of the country’s patriotic youth and a polarizing figure in the Russian-language blogosphere, the country’s most vibrant forum for political debate.
What sent her star rising was a nationalistic, muddled, yet memorable speech at a rally near Red Square last month in support of the government’s measures to combat the financial crisis.
In the Jan. 31 speech, which has prompted both admiration and mockery among bloggers, Sergeyeva told the crowd that she knows “for certain” that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, President Dmitry Medvedev and pro-Kremlin party United Russia will “protect me” from the financial crisis.
“They’ll give me work and won’t let me be laid off illegally,” Sergeyeva shouted.
“I was brought up to be a patriot from day one,” said Sergeyeva who was said to fond for pink bikinis (picture) when interviewed recently for UK’s Times. “My love for Russia came with my mother’s milk.”
“Putin has given us stability and economic growth. It’s good that he’s hardline and tough.” she continued.
In return, Putin reportedly is using Sergeyeva to reach the youth and whip up jingoism and an anti-West sentiment.
At only 24 she is already tipped to become a minister, and perhaps achieve her goal of ruling Russia. Happy to exploit her glamorous looks, Maria Sergeyeva has emerged seemingly from nowhere to become a leading propagandist for her hero, Vladimir Putin, her country’s ‘Iron Man’ Prime Minister.
Critics, who have dubbed her ‘Putin’s pin-up’, say that she is being used by the former KGB leader to target the young and to whip up jingoism and loathing of the West as Russia stares into the abyss of an economic crisis.
‘Maria is a potent combination,’ says a supporter in Putin’s party, United Russia. ‘She can sway crowds with her passion, her looks and her punchy style, but she also reaches out via her blogs and webcasts to places that normal politics fails to go.’
She is a leading light of the Young Guards, a youthful and growing band of zealots dedicated to resisting any efforts to stop Putin’s inexorable Russian revolution.
The Young Guards are close ideological cousins of Nashi, the controversial government-funded ‘youth movement’ that led a six-month campaign of intimidation against former British Ambassador Sir Anthony Brenton in 2006 after he attended a conference held by critics of the Kremlin.
Both organisations were engineered to mimic Soviet-era youth organisations, such as the Young Communists, with the purpose of boosting ‘ patriotism’ in support of the ruling elite. But the Young Guards, though currently smaller than Nashi, have become more influential by harnessing the power of the internet to spread their message.
They recently raised their profile by highlighting the ‘immigration crisis’ and helping police to identify illegal immigrants. With more than 100,000 members, many see membership as essential to their career development.
Although Sergeyeva claims that she holds no official position in the Young Guards, she is suddenly ubiquitous in Russian society – writing newspaper articles, attending political rallies (which, unlike so many others, don’t get banned) and pontificating via the internet. One recent speech that was made available online had 140,000 hits, crashing the political website hosting it.
Her nationalist rhetoric is blunt, if not outright incendiary. At a time when racist attacks in her country are at unprecedented levels, she recently told immigrants to leave.
‘They grab our work,’ she said. ‘Immigrants should work in places where Russians don’t want to, or they should go back home.’
She went on the offensive against former chess champion Garry Kasparov, one of Putin’s few critics, saying he ’sold himself to American spies’. Another opponent, writer Eduard Limonov, was dismissed as having ‘the face of someone who is psychologically abnormal’.
She declared: ‘I personally consider them my enemies. They cast doubt on things that are very important to me: the integrity of Russia and its sovereignty.’
Of a prominent radio talk-show host, another opponent of Putin, she said: ‘I’m not saying that Yulia Latynina is ugly. I’m saying that if a person experiences a lot of negative emotions, that negativity is reflected in her face.’
Boasting that she wears almost exclusively Russian-made clothes rather than Western designer labels – she has a fondness for pink bikinis – Sergeyeva urges drivers to follow her example by shunning foreign cars.
She is critical of the West, especially America, seeing the world through the same prism as her leader. ‘Only the United States is our real competitor,’ she says. ‘When they provoked war in Georgia and revolution in Ukraine, I was so angry.’
When it comes to Russia’s latest crippling financial crisis, she believes that only Putin and his ally President Dmitry Medvedev can save her country.
But you know, just three years ago, Maria Sergeyeva, now dubbed as Russia’s Sarah Palin, Putin’s Poster Girl or Russia’s Ann Coutler among others, was an anti-Putin activist just as fierce as now she is a staunch Putin supporter. Nowadays, with the politics being her first agenda, Sergeyeva is also enjoying the spotlight of international medias.
For those who want to be the boyfriend of Marian Sergeyeva, sorry la, she is already not availabe.
When pressed, Sergeyeva admits there is an older man in her life. ‘I have a sort of relationship. I think it’s real love. I have loved this man for two years – he’s a bit older than me and not in my party.
‘I am not encouraging him to come to United Russia. I don’t think it’s a woman’s business to teach her man what to do.’
At last, here are a few photos of Maria Sergeyeva found on her blog anaitiss.livejournal.com.
Maria Sergeyeva Pictures
