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In Russia no news is good nudes
By MARCUS WARREN
MOSCOW
Monday 5 June 2000

A television current affairs show with topless female reporters has become such a surprise success in Moscow that Russian politicians are queuing up to be interviewed.

Naked Truth, which began life as a one-off joke, has now become cult viewing. With a newsreader who undresses to camera, deadpan interviews conducted by near-naked journalists and a strip-tease artiste forecasting the weather, the show has one running gag: the female breast.

But this has not deterred deputies from the State Duma inviting the show into their offices to be questioned by reporters clutching oversized microphones to their cleavage.

Alexander Saliyi, a Communist Party deputy, defended his appearance, saying: "I didn't take my clothes off. I didn't pay any attention to that object opposite. I just visualised the girl fully dressed."

To hear the interview without seeing the pictures, one would never have guessed her state of undress.

Sergei Moskvin, who invented the show, said the secret of its success was combining straight treatment of the news with the presenters' semi-nudity.

"A woman undressing and serious news are completely incompatible," said Mr Moskvin, who is the director of M1, the Moscow TV channel which broadcasts the show.

"Together it is comedy. Viewers stop listening and just watch open-mouthed."

Intellectuals have argued that Naked Truth is a satire on Russia's notoriously grasping politicians and journalists. But Svetlana Pesotskaya, the blonde actress who reads the news while playfully taking off her top or having it removed by a pair of hairy male arms, insists that the programme is a serious news show.

"It does also aim to shock the audience," she admitted. "The goal is to make us stand out and force people to take notice."

The show, which is broadcast just before midnight, may not top the ratings but so far one major party leader has granted an interview to its topless reporters and more are due to appear soon.

Mr Saliyi, an expert on electoral fraud, justified his appearance by claiming it was an attempt to breach the taboo on discussing vote-rigging in Russia's mainstream media.

"Lenin once wrote that one should use any means at one's disposal to further the struggle," he said. "If such an approach is good enough for my leader, it is good enough for me."
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Comment:
Hmmm....Your president is over there right now I hear. Quaint, very quaint.

Regards from OZ

-- Pieter (zaadz@icisp.net.au), June 04, 2000

Answers

LOL, Pieter! Thanks for the link...

The Washington Post ran an article ( http://washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/articles/A62133-2000Jun4.html ) that said Clinton did an "Ask Bill" show in Russia, a radio show, supposedly...

-- Deb M. (vmcclell@columbus.rr.com), June 05, 2000.

well you don't have to say

get your tits out

-- richard (richard.dale@onion.com), June 05, 2000.