‘Sick of Weinsteins:’ Ex-porn star puts death penalty for sexual harassment in Russia presidency bid
Elena Berkova, who gained nationwide notoriety after taking part in a popular reality show, has announced her presidential ambitions. If elected, she promises to introduce sex exams in schools, tax the poor and make sexual harassment punishable by death.
Berkova announced her 2018 presidential bid by posting a video address on Instagram. In it the adult film star, dressed in black lingerie and nerdy glasses, said she planned to run and immediately went on to list the key points of her electoral platform.
She said that she wants to make divorce almost impossible for men through taxes and red tape. She also promised to introduce sex education and sex exams in school, as well as to pass a law that would require future parents to obtain a childbirth license from the state, by proving their good health and tax discipline.
Another point of Berkova’s program was “clothing censorship,” citing “a skirt cannot be shorter than 40cm” as one such regulation.
She also proposed to restore the Soviet-era law that ordered prison sentences to “parasites” or citizens who did not work without a valid reason and introduce a “tax on poverty.” At the same time, she would offer state credit with no interest to those who start small businesses.
In the end, the porn star stated that she supported death penalty for sexual harassment and explained this by the fact that she was “fed up with Weinsteins.”
It should be noted that the law sets the minimum age for President of the Russian Federation at 35 years and Berkova is currently only 32. The starlet herself did not touch upon this subject in her address.
However, Berkova is not the first to use the forthcoming presidential poll for straightforward self-promotion. Earlier, Russian TV host and model Anfisa Chekhova promised to run for the presidency once her Instagram post about it garnered 200,000 likes.
Berkova started her career in the adult film industry in early 2000s and starred in about 20 films. Her last work in porn was released in 2004 and in the same year she gained nationwide notoriety by participating in a popular reality show Dom-2. In 2009, Berkova announced that she was going to run for mayor in the southern Russian resort city of Sochi. She even released a campaign reel, but did not actually register as a candidate. In 2011, she was given a three-year suspended prison sentence for possession of illegal drugs.
