Russia's Miss Earth contestant in extraordinary rant against country

Russia's entry to the Miss Earth 2012 beauty pageant has provoked outrage in her motherland by calling it "a beggar" and "my poor long-suffering country, mercilessly torn to pieces by greedy, dishonest, unbelieving people".
In the remarkable outburst, Natalia Pereverzeva, said Russia was "a great artery, from which the 'chosen' few people are draining away its wealth."
The 24-year-old issued the withering attack in response to a standard question about what made her proud of her country and what she could promote about it, asked of all contestants of Miss Earth. The annual international beauty contest, an analogue to Miss World which emphasises environmental issues, is being held in the Philippines.

Miss Pereverzeva, a model and former finance specialist, began by praising her country, saying it was, "a kind cow with very big eyes, funny horns and always chewing its mouth; oh, what sweet milk she gives!"
But, veering off message, she added: "My Russia is a beggar. My Russia cannot help her elderly and orphans. From it, bleeding, like from a sinking ship, engineers, doctors, teachers are fleeing, because they have nothing to live on. My Russia – it is an endless Caucasian war."
The stinging indictment, published in full on the pageant's website, caused a furore in Russia.
The Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper splashed with the headline: "Did our Miss Earth 2012 contestant slate Russia or tell the truth?"

Commentator Dmitry Steshin appeared to think the former, saying Miss Pereverzeva had expressed herself in tired Western stereotypes. The beauty contestant was involved in "trading her body in photographs to arouse the sexual instincts of the end consumer" and her opinion was therefore worthless, he suggested.
But another observer, Sergei Chernykh, said Miss Pereverzeva had spoken common truths and was only being blamed because she had said them in front of foreigners.

"Where did she lie? Don't we say the same things ourselves?" he said, adding: "Natalia loves Russia. She is pained, but she loves all the same [S]he wants to make her country better." The winner of the Miss Earth pageant will be announced on Saturday. Miss Pereverzeva, who courted controversy by posing for Russian Playboy last year, took top marks in the make-up round earlier this month.
Miss Pereverzeva was Miss Moscow in 2010 and she won a Russia-wide beauty contest last year.