Russian Leader Appoints Playboy Bunny to Parliament Role

KOMPAS.com - A Playboy playmate has been elected as one of Vladimir Putin’s MPs in the Russian parliament, giving him some cheer after all the recent protests against election fraud by his party.

Maria Kozhevnikova, 27, an actress, posed nude for the Russian edition of the magazine two years ago soon after breaking up from a boyfriend.

She featured on the cover and seven revealing pages were devoted to her inside the magazine.
'Playboy magazine invites readers to meet Maria and get to know her better,' boasted the title.

The daughter of a Soviet ice hockey player, Alexander Kozhevnikov, who was twice an Olympic champion, Maria was a lead singer in Russian group called Love Stories before taking on film roles.

She is now best known as a star in Univers, a TV sitcom about student life. Like former spy and glamour icon Anna Chapman, she was a member of the Young Guard of Putin’s political party United Russia, which is currently facing allegations of vote-rigging after this month winning a narrow overall majority in parliament.

'For me this is an absolutely big event in my life,' she said after being confirmed as the new MP for ice-clad Tomsk in Siberia.

'I’m just an ordinary citizen of the Russian Federation. With the problems I face every day, now I’ll be provided a platform where I can speak up the difficulties and offer solutions.'

She insisted: 'I think now the time has come when the young people’s voice is listened to. The future of our country belongs to young people, and we must also be involved.

'I faced the problems of not being able to find a job after college, or buy an apartment by myself.'

Despite portraying herself as just like any other Russian woman, whispers in Moscow say her family is close to a Putin ally.