Svetlana Zhurova: before and after the “law of scoundrels”

Yesterday I watched an interview on the Dozhd TV channel with the once athlete and now senator Svetlana Zhurova. We were talking about the very “Dima Yakovlev’s law”, for which our Olympic champion, among others, voted. The presenter, Yulia Taratuta, although using mild formulations, tried quite persistently to get Zhurova to answer the main question: “Aren’t you ashamed?” After endless speeches about how the Russian authorities will now take care of the children, that some kind of program will be developed by March, and so on blah blah blah, Svetlana finally admitted that she is not ashamed. That she had doubts at first, but then “immersed herself in the topic” (after spending two days on it) and realized that the ban on the adoption of Russian children by Americans was the right decision.

Why were these words, which had previously been repeatedly uttered by many deputies of our State Duma, from the lips of Svetlana Zhurova especially sad to hear? This is probably the same reason why Yulia Taratuta invited Zhurova to the studio - because many of our citizens, including me, hardly associate the famous speed skater with the image of a “cannibal”.

I had to cross paths with Zhurova a couple of times, since she is a senator from our Kirov region and has come to our region more than once for various reasons. I saw her once at the first meeting of our city duma, where Svetlana went as a “locomotive” from EdRa, and after that she was delegated from the region to the Federation Council. Initially, it was clear that she - a Muscovite, an athlete and simply a beauty - had nothing to do in our stagnant Kirov Duma, that this was just a deal: for her it was an opportunity to become a senator, for local United Russia members it was an extra mandate for their people. And now the first meeting of the Duma, deputies choose the head of the city. There is no intrigue, but the faces are all tense, solemn, so to speak, appropriate to the moment. And at this moment Svetlana Zhurova casually tells reporters what kind of sports her son is involved in and what a convenient city Kirov is for raising children. A friendly smile, willingness to support any topic. She frankly doesn’t care about the agenda - she doesn’t sit in this Duma, she doesn’t work with these solemn people, thank God. She would quickly get out of this “convenient for raising children” city to her son, whom, as she admitted, she had not seen for several days and missed very much. And these were such natural feelings that were so openly read in her entire behavior that it was awkward to even reproach her for anything. Well, at least in the fact that it is a shame to be a “locomotive” of anyone, and even more so of “swindlers and thieves.”

The second time I saw Svetlana Zhurova was at the DDT concert. The legendary group sang on the main square of Kirov on the occasion of City Day, and our newly-minted senator, together with Governor Nikita Belykh, stood in the crowd, sang along with Shevchuk and at the same time actively wrote something on Twitter. Simply put, democratically, without any show-offs or platforms for VIPs. Moreover, when a girl in the crowd suddenly fainted, Zhurova was one of the first to rush to help her - she put a bag under her head, washed her with water from the governor’s bottle...

...And then there was an “anti-orphan” law, and Svetlana Zhurova babbled something incomprehensible from the blue screen about the fact that not all 946 children adopted by Americans are disabled, but only 44... And a month later, already on the TV channel" Rain,” rejected any attempts by TV presenter Yulia Taratuta to save her reputation. She admitted that no one put pressure on her, that she was not ashamed and that she was ready to continue sailing on this “ship” from which she “cannot jump.”

In such cases, the question always arises: what makes a generally good person dance to the tune of scoundrels? Who is he - a scoundrel or just a fool who is being deceived? It seems to me that Svetlana Zhurova is not a cannibal, but she is glad to be deceived, because if she sees the light, they will already eat her. And they won’t look at the fact that she’s an Olympic champion.