Svetlana Medvedev : A Very Orthodox First Lady

At first glance, the only similarities between Dmitry Medevdev and French president Nicolas Sarkozy are their small height (1.62m (5 foot 4) from head to toe for the Russian) and their law degrees. When it comes to their wives, there’s no comparison. The new president of Russia, elected by Vladimir Putin on Sunday, March 2, has spent virtually his entire adult life married to a stunning blonde answering to the lovely name Svetlana. A real plum, with womanly curves and plunging necklines that flaunt her ample assets. Another character trait : although unlike the new French First Lady, Svetlana doesn’t sing, she does revel in luxury : she adores eating sushi and attending Russian pop star Alla Pugacheva’s private parties, and her wardrobe is stuffed with clothes from that most Muscovite of modistes : Valentin Yudashkin…

Svetlana Medvedev

© Mor

But the ruffles and lace are just a façade. Svetlana Medvedev, born into a Saint Petersburg military family, graduated from Finek, the city’s most prestigious school of Finance. Although one doesn’t usually lead to the other, the First Lady has been extremely active in charity work for several years now. She has even been decorated with the Order of the “Venerable Euphrozyne of Moscow" by the Orthodox Church, which awards the “most meretricious Russian women”. And, most importantly, she runs “April 2007” a program sponsored by Patriarch Alexius II entitled “Movement for the Moral and Spiritual Culture of the Younger Generation in Russia”.

Saint Svetlana

In other words, Svetlana, mother of a 16-year-old boy, is also in charge of financing the orphanages, and researching and financing cultural projects for youth. All under the aegis of Alexius II, the 15th Patriarch of Moscow and of All Russia. A not-so insignificant detail when you realize that he is the man of the cloth who, as early as 2002, sealed the Church’s strange reconciliation and increasingly close alliance with the KGB and its most-eminent former officer, Vladimir Putin. Post-Stalinian battles ‘twixt Church and State ? All is forgiven ! Putin has realized the political advantages offered by the spiritual. In fact, at a press conference in Moscow in 2003 he declared that the Orthodox Church was “the most popular of Russian traditions” !

Since then, there have been plenty of tokens of esteem for Patriarch Alexius, who according to experts in Soviet history and dissident priests within his own church, was himself a KGB collaborator, under the code name "Drozdov". As for Putin, he likes nothing better than to have his picture taken kneeling in front of the icons in Russian holy sites. In guise of thanks, Orthodox priests have publicly blessed new missiles and other Soviet weapons with incense and pious kisses.

Russian Religious Revival

The former President and future Prime Minister has also been active in assisting with financing the reconstruction of the basilica of Omsk, in Siberia, thereby gilding his reputation with the some 140 million faithful. The number of Russians who have (re)discovered their connections to the Orthodox Church is believed to have doubled over the past 10 years. To the extent that this newfound religious fervor is starting to worry partisans of a secular Russia, who point out that more and more politicians are consulting with seers and other prophetesses, like Sister Varvara of Siberia.

On the new Medvedev–Putin chessboard, the recently elected president’s lovely lady might well become a go-between for the priests and the executive. After all, it’s an old Russian tradition for a woman to be the emissary between political and religious powers. Shades of Rasputin…

Translated by : Regan Kramer

(Re)lire la version française du portrait de Svetlana Medvedev sur Bakchich.info.