"Russian Beauty" Contest Chooses Winners

Irina Kovalenko, a 17-year-old from the Barents Sea port of Murmansk, won the title of Russia's No. 1 Beauty in the Moscow based contest called Krasa Rossii, or Russian Beauty. The contest gathered 42 unmarried girls aged between 14 and 25, all from different regions of Russia. Members of the jury and event organisers describe the winner as fully corresponding with generally accepted beauty standards and possessing a shapely figure, positive energy, sharp wit, patriotic feeling and high morality. The titles of Russian Beauty No 2 and Russian Beauty No 3 went to Tatiana Kuznetsova of Nizhny Novgorod, Volga area, and Irina Kosyanenko of Novosibirsk, Western Siberia.