About
Natalia Poklonskaya is a former Ukrainian official who gained international fame online following her appointment as the chief prosecutor of the newly-created Autonomous Republic of Crimea in March 2014.
History
According to the Turkish news site National Turk[8], Poklonskaya had previously served as the chief prosecutor of the Crimean region within the Ukrainian Attorney General’s Office. On March 11th, 2014, Poklonskaya was appointed as the Prosecutor General of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea during the independence movement in the former Ukrainian region. Later that day, she made her first appearance at a press conference, during which she reportedly called the Ukranian officials “devils from the ashes,” and the footage was subsequently uploaded by YouTuber Andrey Russian on the next day (shown below).
On March 13th, 2014, the same clip was re-uploaded to the Japanese YouTube channel YouTubi News,[6] where it received upwards of 228,000 views and 120 comments in the first four days.
Fandom
On March 15th, the Japanese news blog RocketNews24[2] highlighted several photographs of Poklonskaya (shown below) and reported that a fandom surrounding the prosecutor had formed among Japanese netizens.
On March 16th, Lowyat Forums[7] member Mustadio created a thread about Poklonskaya, referring to her as “Putin’s new sexy prosecutor.” On the following day, a Facebook[3] community page titled “Natalia Poklonskaya” was launched, highlighting notable photographs and illustrations of the Crimea prosecutor. In the first 20 hours, the page garnered upwards of 1,400 likes. On March 18th, a thread about Polonskaya was created in the /int/ (international) board on 4chan.
Nyasha (няша)
In the Russian speaking part of the Internet, Natalia is often being refereed as nyasha, because of her cute appearance and similarity to the diminutive form of Natalia’s name – Natasha which allows easy rhyming. Discussions or fanart produced by Russian Internet users sometimes include some wordplay, like “прокурор Наташа – победа будет няша!” (“attorney Natasha – nyasha will be the victory!”[10]) or just “няша-прокурор” (“nyasha the attorney”).
A subsequent interview, taken by НТВ Channel on March 24 2014 regarding Natalia’s opinion on her unusual Internet-fame and her nickname she replied: “I am the prosecutor here and therefore won’t tollerate any nyashas-myashas!”[11].
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The term nyasha (noun, f.) was coined in late 00"[9] as a derivative from “nyashniy” (adj.) – a word to describe cute or positive or desirable things or characters in anime, and is often used in not anime-related discussions. The word nyasha is often used to describe a very cute girl or if used as plural – pleasant people (or somewhat sarcastic address form similar to “my dears”). The root of all words is obviously the word nya (Jap.“meow”). which for a long time was a typical positive reply or approval (like “thumbs up”) in Russian speaking anime fandom.
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Fan Art
Within one week of her appointment as prosecutor, many fan illustrations of Poklonskaya had been submitted to both Pixiv[5] and DeviantArt[4] (shown below).
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Search Interest
References
[1]YouTube – Natalia Poklonskaya the 33-year-old Sexy Prosecutor General of Crimea
[2]Rocketnews24 – Japanese netizens put reality on hold for a moment, fall in love with new attorney general of Crimea
[3]Facebook – Natalia Poklonskaya
[4]DeviantArt – natalia poklonskaya
[5]Pixiv – ナタリア・ポクロンスカヤ
[6]YouTube – YouTubi News
[7]Lowyat – Natalia Poklonskaya Crimea prosecutor
[8]National Turk – Natalia Poklonskaya she is the Putins new sexy prosecutor assigned by Russian for Crimea ! / Breaking News
[9]Google – Search Interest
[10]- Phraze origins from well known soccer fanchant template: “X – параша, победа будет наша!” (“X parasha, pobeda budet nasha!”, “X is a shit hole, ours will be the victory!”).
[11]The Moscow Times – Crimean Prosecutor and Anime Star Receives Promotion