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The Collected Works Of Vladimir Putin’s Ex-Lingerie Model Private Photographer

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin has hired a woman named Yana Lapikova as a personal photographer. She'll photograph Putin as he goes about his job, doing a little shirtless horseback riding, making his country safe for tigers and very, very unsafe for Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Lapikova's appointment has raised some eyebrows because she is a former lingerie model and runner-up Miss Moscow. That "is not a crime," points out Putin's press secretary, tersely. And, you know, it's not! And modeling — like stripping, sex work, or almost any kind of job that a woman does with her body — is definitely one of those positions that tends to have a long half-life on a résumé, and in the public imagination. Whenever a lady somewhere who once had her picture taken for a living decides to do something else with her life, the snickering starts. Snicker, news media, snicker. (Okay, I'm snickering, too, but mostly at those acrylic nails, because damn.)
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