From ForeignPolicy.com:
Update: Argh…It seems this may have been a very well-executed April Fools joke by the Moscow Times. I could say that I knew that and was just playing along but I doubt anyone would believe me. Well played guys. The Chavez thing is real though.
Vladimir Putin’s political party United Russia is known for appointing celebrities with dubious political credentials to prominent positions, but usually they’re at least Russian celebrities. Now, according to the Moscow Times, they may be looking a bit futher afield, recruiting British supermodel and tabloid favorite, Naomi Campbell:
“She is a young, sexy, intelligent woman who has shown how the new Russia can attract the best in the world,” said the source, who asked for his name not to be used because he was not authorized to speak to the press despite working in the United Russia press office.
“Once she modernized the fashion world, now she is part of the modernization of Russia,” the source said.
The British model, who is engaged to real estate mogul Vladislav Doronin, currently spends much of her time in Moscow and recently guest edited the Russian edition of Vogue, where she appeared clothed in only a big snake.
The source’s use of the term “modernization” is a deliberate echo of President Dmitry Medvedev’s call for the modernization of the country. The source refused to say if party head and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin or Medvedev knew of Campbell’s interest in United Russia.
GALLERY: Naomi Campbell In PETA Ad
Oh brother. It’s certainly possible that the spokesman was going off the reservation, but a few more anonymous Duma sources confirm it and this doesn’t exactly seem out of character for United Russia. Duma deputy Sergei Markov is quoted in the article saying that “gymnasts Kabayeva and Svetlana Khorkina have shown that women with a strong presence in previous nonpolitical spheres can become capable members of United Russia.” So there.
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