I can't see what is sad or wrong with a woman or man posing for photographs where they look beautiful. The photographer who used deceit to take these photos is shameful, but there is no reason to blame Anastasia Myskina.

I presume that you think there is something fundamentally wrong about the human body. That sounds rather like a personal problem.

Chris Everett and the Williams sisters posed for many photos and have used their looks to make money and promote products for many years. Rather strange that you would suggest otherwise. Martina Navratilova would have done the same, if she had that kind of appearence or reputation which manufacturers wished to associate with their products.

What is the problem? Is she the first sportswoman to publish nude pictures? Just off the top of my head, I know for sure that women (not all of them, course) from the Australia Olympic Team had their nude pictures taken before the Olympics. Is anything OK in Australia with AIDS and stuff? I am sure there is. Or is it just that Russians dared to get into the territory that is a prerogative of the Western Society? I am very critical of what's happening in Russia at the moment, but do try to be less agressive and do not make wrong parallels. Good luck.

La Russophobe thanks the commenters for their interest. She responds as follows:

W. SHEDD: You are not reading very carefully. Anastasia didn't think she looked beautiful, she thought she looked so ugly that she filed a lawsuit. And I guess you aren't aware that Russia has a massive problem with white slavery, prostitution, STDs and general oppression of women. It's rather strange that you would choose to grossly mischaracaterize what I wrote. I said that Everett and the Williams sisters did not turn up NUDE. At least try to be fair, can't you?

AT: My interest in tennis is not sudden, you have no basis for that claim. When you talk about a "young beautiful girl" I have no idea whether you are referring to Sharapova of Myskina, you seem to have them confused. You seem to me like a petty, uninformed, jealous Russophile, the kind that is helping Russia to disappear from the face of the earth and Russian women to live in subjugation and white slavery. Your comment about the presence of comments on my site is typical blind Russiphile hatred and personal abuse, the kind neo-Soviet propagandists always turn to when the facts destroy them. My site is less than one month old and I've been busy. I've only just started reviewing comments and posting them, as you can see.

ANONYMOUS: She's the first Russian who promised not to be Kournikova to do so. If Mussolini murdered many, does that make it OK for Hitler to do the same?

DAUT: You must be insane. Venus and Serena are two of the sexiest female athletes who ever played any sport, and they are highly sought after for such images. The difference is that they never promised not to make them the way Sharapova did, and they have 100 times the tennis game she has, with many more slams.

DAUT: So let me get this straight. You think the world is desperate to see Kuznetsova and Petrova naked?

The fact is, you didn't mention a word about the Williams sisters, nor a word about Kuznetsova/Petrova. You choose to mention only the facts you like in order to impulsively condemn me.

The fact is, just because people want to see Sharapova naked doesn't mean she should oblige them. The women's tennis game is already not taken seriously enough because of poor quality of play, and Sharapova is only speeding up its downfall. She played to a half-empty stadium at the fifth major even though she'd just been in SI. People don't attend tennis matches to see T&A, the attend to see great athletics. Sharapova hasn't played a single great, thrilling match in her entire life. Her game is boring and one-dimensional and that is bad for the game.

By the way, have you changed the outrageous statement about me on your blog yet, where you claim I didn't publish your comments?

For more response to commenters, see here:

http://russophobe.blogspot.com/2006/04/la-russophobe-fires-back-at-psycho.html

See here:

http://russophobe.blogspot.com/2006/04/stop-presses.html

for an example of how Russians butcher English-language literature and totally fail to understand the West, just as knee-jerk Russophiles fail to understand La Russophobe, who can even translate Lermontov (which she doubts any of her commenters have done):

http://russophobe.blogspot.com/2006/04/la-russophobe-translates-le-lermontov.html

(or read him either, or Solzhenitsin for that matter -- Russia also tried to silence Solzhenitsin, calling him all the same names La Russophobe gets. Neither is silenced!)

DAUT:

It doesn't piss me off in the least, it just makes you look like a total fool and that delights me to no end, so I hope you leave it up forever.

If you think getting permission to live in Russia for five years with an option on five more is the same as U.S. Permanent Residence, you really are a hopeless blockhead. PERMANENT residence means that you NEVER have to renew and keep your status as long as you don't commit a crime. All you are doing is spewing out the Kremlin's propaganda, and the Kremlin is insane and detached from reality, so you are just embarrassing yourself.

Unless, of course, you believe that five years is the same as permanent. I guess you might, if you're about 95 years old. :)

DAUT: Everyone can see how, when proven wrong, you suddenly change the subject, as those who try to defend Russia always must do.

First you say Russia has "permanent" residence just like America. Then it turns out you are LYING, and a person can only get permission to live in Russia for FIVE YEARS at a time, not permanently.

Then, instead of APOLOGIZING for your lie, you make up a new one.

Now you say it is harder to get an ENTRY visa to the US than to get one for Russia. Yet, you don't specify the differences in requirements, you tell the reader to go do your work for you.

That is just plain pathetic, a neat encapsulation of why Russia is a total failure as a nation.

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it was more difficult to enter America than Russia, since EVERYBODY wants to enter America and NOBODY wants to enter Russia, except Russians who have been kicked out of other countries in the former Soviet empire. So when there is competition, there are higher standards.

But despite all that difficulty, FAR MORE people from Europe enter America than enter Russia. America receives BILLIONS more dollars from tourists than Russia gets.

In other words, you're wrong AGAIN.

Can't say as I recall Chris Everett or Martina Navratilova or Lindsey Davenport or the Williams sisters suddenly turning up nude, can you?

Sure the hell can't remember any edition of the "Spooks n u" with non-clothed Serena on the cover, unless ALL THE MOTHERS of the world have hidden it up from their young children.

AFAIK,Venus did model once, in clothes tho, thank god!