THE AMMOSOVA SISTERS and EDGAR SAAKYAN

Edgar Saakyan: Hi! Today we are talking with my acquaintances Anastasia Ammosova and Polina Ammosova. Girls, where are you now and how was your January?
The Ammosova Sisters: We are in Moscow now, I did my diploma with excellent marks and I am passing my exams, so far I did very well!
Edgar Saakyan: Congratulations!
The Ammosova Sisters: Thank you!
Edgar Saakyan: What universities do you go to?
The Ammosova Sisters: First Sechenov Moscow State University.
Edgar Saakyan:Who do you study for?
The Ammosova Sisters: On February 1st we should graduate, specialization is medical management. I am still studying so far.

Edgar Saakyan: We are approaching the Student Day very successfully! Tell me, girls, do you always appear everywhere together?
The Ammosova Sisters: We are always together at events, but we have to go to university separately, because I am three years younger. But Polina helped me sew my diploma thesis. I printed everything out, and Pauline helped me sew it. Also, since we have the same teachers, I recommended her thesis advisor and Nastya liked it a lot.

Edgar Saakyan: You're like a team effort! You have both participated in beauty pageants. What was the most meaningful moment for each of you?
The Ammosova Sisters: Probably Nastya's trip to Miss Russia 2017. Yeah, because that was the starting point, because we weren't in the modeling industry before the Miss Russia pageant. And I'm following in Nastya's footsteps and it's much easier for me to tread that path.

Edgar Saakyan: The beauty pageant industry has created a springboard for you to develop in other areas. You, for instance, actively help the animal world. Could you tell us how you came to that?
The Ammosova Sisters: Helping animals is a cause that has always been with us, regardless of beauty contests. We believe that beauty contests are a great platform to promote charitable activities. So one of our main goals is to help animals, to promote charitable projects globally, because the country wins, it's in the spotlight, it can attract some sponsors.
Yes, I also agree that it's a great platform to promote charitable activities, every beauty who wins is in the spotlight, she's helped to promote her projects, especially Miss World and Miss Universe.
I believe beauty pageants are competitions. In many countries there is no support for girls, unlike in Latin America, there everyone follows the development of the pageant, and in Russia there is no such thing, unfortunately.

Edgar Saakyan: Why there is no such support in our country?
The Ammosova Sisters: We do not know; may be, as in betting, they bet on the wrong horse? When you pick Miss Country, you bet on her to win. But when there is no win, it becomes incomprehensible. You can be wrong once, another time. But when there are several years in a row, there are questions.

Edgar Saakyan: Which country's contestant are you following? Who may be an example for you?
The Ammosova Sisters: Speaking about the main contests: Miss World and Miss Universe, I follow Miss Universe more. I subscribe to all the contestants to keep track.
She makes her lists, writes everything down.
And after the pageant, I don't unsubscribe from the girls, I actively follow them afterwards.
For the Miss World contest, we only follow the girl who won, and Miss Universe is more interesting there. Polina, for example, takes a pen and a notebook and follows all the contestants, the national costume contest, the swimsuits, the finals. As an experienced jury she gives the girls marks, marks the top, this year, by the way, we even guessed the winner. As soon as she got on stage and mewed something about supporting animals, I immediately said, "I wish you victory!" And so she won.
We had it like this last year: I was actively rooting for the contestant from Costa Rica, and Nastia remembered Puerto Rico. And every time the contestant was announced, she said, "Puerto Rico" and I told her, "No, no, Costa Rica". And that's how the contestant made it to the Top 10.

Edgar Saakyan: What do you think of the Miss Universe winner?
The Ammosova Sisters: There hasn't been time not to look at her yet.
There were a lot of beautiful and deserving girls, but the fact that she supports animals is a huge plus in her piggy bank. We are very glad we chose her.

Edgar Saakyan: You were at the Miss Universe pageant as a guest. How did you find the atmosphere?
The Ammosova Sisters: What you see in the picture is a beautiful show, probably anyone who goes into detail about the contests knows that there is a very long screen saver, advertising... At this time a huge team of stylists comes on stage, fixes the girls' makeup, the stage directors arrange everyone in their places. Someone right on stage changing the outfit! That is, basically everything is not aimed at the audience. It didn't quite live up to our expectations, I thought it would be more ambitious. They focus on the audience watching the broadcast, not the audience in the audience.
We were in the front row, in the middle of the event, we saw all the flaws and pluses of the girls. But unequivocally, when you see the finished edited material, you admire it!  When you see everything from the audience, you notice that someone went the wrong way, someone did something wrong.
You can also remember that interesting incident at Miss Universe when my dress caught fire.

Edgar Saakyan: Tell us!
The Ammosova Sisters: Nastia and I had shiny dresses.
We guessed with the dresses, because the finalists had shiny dresses... They started applauding! They thought they were the first contestants, and I hurried to tell them I was just a spectator!
So, about the dress. When there was a top 10 or top 5 moment, everyone started getting up from their chairs to walk up to the stage instead of sitting a foot away from it. Everybody stood up. It was very hot because of the spotlights. The stage was set crosswise. I look up and see a haze. I can smell something burning. People got restless right away. Apparently some kind of effect happened, and my dress started to burn. Nastia starts to put it out. As a result, on the back of a short dress, there was a hole... So until the end of the event I covered my purse. In Bangkok, by the way, we also had a very long flight, about 12 hours. Without sleep, we went to the finals at five in the morning, because the contest is held according to the time in America.
It was very interesting, the first thing that caught my eye was that when we arrived we were met by men in women's costumes with ribbons and crowns.
We thought we had come to some cosplay show because everyone was dressed up. Then we realized that the men in Bangkok are very feminine and beautiful!
I was very surprised that the fans cried to tears for the contestant from Thailand! From Spain, the transgender girl contestant was also so actively cheered on by the audience! She walked on the stage and cried, it was very nice!

Edgar Saakyan: What do you think about transgender girls contestants?
The Ammosova Sisters: We are from the beauty industry. We know a lot of people who are transgender. The most important thing in a person is their soul. When you sit in the class you don't think about his orientation, you look at him as a person. So it's everyone's choice.

Edgar Saakyan: Well not all countries have this opinion...
The Ammosova Sisters: People are different and everybody has different opinion, you cannot say that one country has one opinion and another one has another.

Edgar Saakyan: You are in very good touch with Miss Universe of 2002. How did you meet Oksana Fedorova?
The Ammosova Sisters: We have a very friendly relationship with Oksana. We met her at Miss Russia 2018, she was a member of the jury. That was the first time I saw her in person.
But we recognized her from our childhood, because we watched "Good night, kids!" And only with her!
Then my mom told me that she was the most beautiful girl... It was afterwards when I met her at the contest.
Then they started talking about Oksana becoming her national director for Miss Europe, Oksana was very supportive.

Edgar Saakyan: Do you keep in touch now? Do you have any joint projects?
The Ammosova Sisters: No, there are very few projects now because of the coronovirus. But we are good friends with Oksana, we know her children and her mother.

Edgar Saakyan: What happened to competitions?
The Ammosova Sisters: We spent the whole day communicating with the owner of the contest, for which we had to fly to Milan, and then the final in Paris. The WHO has called for the vaccination recommendations to be lifted, and England is lifting the bans as of Monday with the lack of vaccine. But we just decided we're not going to fly because the director wrote that despite all the decisions made, all the girls have to be vaccinated because contestants from other countries are vaccinated, so they wouldn't feel comfortable if someone was without a vaccine. This competition has been postponed all the time. There are very strict conditions, stay in quarantine, you are greeted in suits, isolated from everyone. There's a box, quite expensive, with a TV set, a bed, a chair, you can't move around anywhere. We told this to the directorate, and they decided that they would move the finals to Paris. Maybe something will change.

Edgar Saakyan: Tell us more about that situation with Zapashny.
The Ammosova Sisters: We have a very big correspondence with him, he likes the expression "zooshiza" very much. In his opinion, those are the people who help the animals too much. Let's say when he invited us to the circus we went there with the youngest deputy. He wasn't expecting that, he took it very fiercely, he thought we had come to check on him. We changed our attitude to his circus. Everyone thinks they treat animals harshly in a circus, cats, for example, don't like to perform some tricks when they're beaten, they're very proud animals. And he asks them to do tricks with affection: he scratches them, pats their tummy, on their back. And there's a very good attitude of the animals. And in the small circuses that go around the cities, the conditions are just awful: small cages, temperature conditions... Many people advocate closing all circuses, but then what will happen to the animals? Would they be thrown out into the street? That's why, as Edgar Zapashny says, an animal in the wild will live much less than in domestic conditions. Because there is no competition in the circus. In the wild, every minute is a fight for life. When an animal that lived in captivity is released into the wild, it will die.
Another problem is contact zoos. When they close them, the animals are dumped on the rubbish heap. People do not take into consideration what will happen to animals.

Edgar Saakyan: In your opinion should the circus industry continue?
The Ammosova Sisters: Circuses rescue animals that have lost their mother, give them food, care and warmth. But we are against tearing animals out of their habitat for no apparent reason.

Edgar Saakyan: Do we need dolphinariums?
The Ammosova Sisters: Of course, they need to get rid of them because it is bad when an animal is out of its habitat. It's a big plus when it's rescued. The girl from the Miss Russia pageant, Lina, rescued the bear cub. And it's great that there are such cases. At the Moskvarium they also save animals.

Edgar Saakyan: What should be an ideal zoo, according to your opinion?
The Ammosova Sisters: A zoo should not be perfect. It should not be like that. Animals must live in their own habitat.
A zoo today is a large number of animals who are used to living in artificial conditions. They are like pets who are used to being cared for. That is why zoos should not be closed.
The ideal zoo is a home for rescued animals. Those who find themselves in difficult situations, who are left without a mother.
In the wild they become links in the food chain.

Edgar Saakyan: How do you feel about hunting?
The Ammosova Sisters: Negative. This is a relic of the past. Nowadays a human being doesn't need to go and get food for himself like the ancient man did. There are stores. It should be forbidden.
We were driving by car once, we saw hunters walking past us. That's an armed man! What if he's not just hunting animals?
And we also think that the free sale of guns should be banned. It's very easy to get this certificate. A man rides a car, a subway, a bus. Okay, he has a license to hunt wild boar, but who can prove that he will kill one wild boar, that only wild boar he will kill.
And here is the recent story about deputy Rashkin, who killed a moose without a license. All these processes are not controlled in any way. And how many cases have there been of students bringing weapons to school?
We also talked to the compilers of the red book of the Saratov region. They told us that hunting is necessary in order to control the number of animals. We explained to them that this can be achieved by castration, but they said that there are a lot of animals. And when we decided to find out how many animals there are, they said that it was impossible to count it.
Then I asked the following question, "So why do you put them in the red book?"
Another question is, "How do they choose which animals to kill?"

Edgar Saakyan: What do your friends from the State Duma say about this whole situation?
The Ammosova Sisters: Nothing.
Speaking of the former chairman of Animal and Environmental Affairs, Vladimir Brumatov, he was sitting on two chairs. When they voted for crossbows, he voted yes, because his vote, he said, wouldn't change anything.
They pretend to ban animals, but at the same time they vote for the crossbow hunting project.

Edgar Saakyan: Sad story! Keep it up! What are your other plans?
The Ammosova Sisters: We help our acquaintance to sell around 800 paintings... Levitan, Aivazovsky...
Edgar Saakyan: Thank you girls for the interview!