Miss Russia says Miss Universe competitors ‘avoided’ and ‘shunned’ her

Miss Russia, who competed in the Miss Universe pageant that ended on January 15, said the competition was “very difficult” and that she “continues to receive threats” from Ukrainians.

In an interview with Evening Moscow published on Tuesday, Miss Russia Anna Linnikova said she “faced a continuous stream of insults and threats from Ukrainian social media users” during the competition and even faced “negative comments from long-time acquaintances from Ukraine”.

“And many others avoided me and shunned me simply by learning about my origins,” she continued. “The girls from Ukraine and Switzerland simply ran from me like fire!”

She said that when the public learned the address of the hotel where she and the other participants were staying, she received threats and “was really scared for my life because there were threats of physical violence on the condition that I go on stage”.

Linnikova told Evening Moscow she believes “everything about the top-16 stage has an exclusively political context” and that her inability to reach the contest’s final stage didn’t have “anything to do with the quality of my performance”.

She added that it is “very symbolic” that both an American and a Ukrainian won two nominations and that it is a “pity” the Ukrainian contestant who did not want to stand next to her in the group photo wouldn’t communicate better with her.

The pageant took place the same day a Russian missile killed more than 40 people in a residential building in Ukraine. The United Nations estimates upwards of 7,000 civilians have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine 11 months ago.

“Some girls at Miss Universe did not know there was a war in Ukraine,” Miss Ukraine Viktoriia Apanasenko said last month.

Apanasenko hoped Miss Russia would express sorrow for her country’s unprovoked invasion, but instead she approached her for a selfie “for what I think were propaganda purposes”.