Michelle Obama Visits First Lady of Russia, Sign of Women Power?

...The American first lady (Michelle Obama), who has wowed publics in the U.S. and Europe with her easy elegance and charm, will perhaps face a bigger challenge in winning over a Russian public that has scant respect for women who grab the limelight from their powerful husbands.

...Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's wife Svetlana is pious and discreet and met her husband while she was a schoolgirl. She supports charity and the arts, but has assumed no independent voice on issues facing the country. She dresses conservatively, lacking the edgy fashion sense that has attracted a nationwide following for Michelle Obama.

Russia has known one iconic first lady in modern times: Raisa Gorbachev, wife of the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who was much loved around the world for breaking with tradition by appearing regularly in public with her husband, embracing high fashion and firing off wisecracks during official foreign trips.

But she earned little affection for her boldness in Russia, where she was seen as strong-willed and ambitious.

  As for Vladimir Putin's wife, Lyudmilla, she only occasionally appeared in the company of her husband — fueling widespread reports the two were estranged.

 

Boris Yeltsin's wife Naina assumed a lower profile behind her husband, achieving popularity by declaring indifference to politics and saying she would sooner see Yeltsin retire.

The visit to Russia by Barack Obama, the first black man to be elected president of the United States, is significant for many Russians.

But for Russians of African descent, in particular, the new U.S. leader is a potent symbol of triumph over the same challenges they themselves face in a country where dark-skinned people remain rare and often unwelcome.

  Displays of chauvinism, xenophobia and aggressive nationalism now confront virtually all countries, including states with deep historical democratic traditions. Unfortunately there have been isolated incidents of anti-Semitism and extremist groups in Russia. Some marginal political forces are trying to exploit nationalist slogans. We understand perfectly the threat that the propaganda of nationalism and chauvinism represents for our multi-ethnic and multi-confessional society. And therefore the fight against any manifestations of xenophobia and the prevention of conflicts based on ethnicity are particularly important to us. Russian law enforcement agencies conduct a thorough investigation of all incidents caused by nationalism and racism.