Officially Russia prides itself on being a diverse,
multicultural country.
She said she expects to put her page back up in the near future.
So it seemed appropriate when 18-year-old Elmira Abdrazakova
-- the daughter of a Russian mother and a Tatar father from frigid Kemerovo
Oblast -- was crowned Miss Russia 2013 on March 2.
But the online reaction was enough to wipe the smile off
Abdrazakova’s face. Within hours of her victory, an avalanche of thousands of
hate messages filled with ethnic slurs came in from people espousing Russian
nationalist views, forcing Abdrazakova to shut down her social-media pages.
One person wrote that there should be a law barring
"Tatar women and also highland and lowland ethnic Shors" from participating
in beauty contests.
Another wrote that "a gypsy woman cannot be the face of
Russia."The reaction prompted Abdrazakova to shut down her page on the
popular social-networking site Vkontakte.ru "in order to avoid further
provocations," as she told the Russian News Service. She added that the
comments were motivated by "racism or some kind of nationalism," but
added that people in the public spotlight have to expect negative reactions.She said she expects to put her page back up in the near future.
