Russian politician with Marge Simpson hairdo goes viral
Marge Simpson, is that you?
A Siberian lawmaker has turned heads online because of her towering hairdo that shockingly resembles that of the “Simpsons” matriarch.
Valentina Petrenko, a former senator of Khakassia in southern Russia, went viral on Twitter after pictures resurfaced of her highly unorthodox hairstyle — one she would proudly sport inside the nation’s legal chambers.
“I’ve been enjoying this Russian politician’s hair this afternoon,” posted Twitter user Jimmy Pop alongside three glamour shots of Petrenko.
“Meet Valentina Petrenko — and yes, she’s real and so is the dead animal attached to head,” replied @BrandiLynn4Ever.
“I wonder if she cuts it with a hedge trimmer,” added @NotVolvaElaine.
“This is 100% a Bond villain,” wrote @duanepongo.
One person on Twitter compared the Russian legislator to late country singer and “Family Guy” icon Conway Twitty, while another proudly proclaimed that “she’s been my capital one avatar for *years*.”
Many were quick to make hilarious memes of Petrenko that suggest her hair is a sentient being.
Fascination with the politician’s hair has been ongoing and is a sore subject for Petrenko, who said she has had to address her look routinely.
“I’m so tired of answering these questions,” the Kazakhstan-born politician told Echo of Moscow radio in 2015, Newsweek reported.
“I just have curly hair. I lift it upwards with some hairpins, that is all.”
A few years prior, in 2012, Petrenko sounded off on lawmakers considering enforcing a dress code for members of the Federation Council, which they consulted with fashion designers on.
“Telling us how to dress is going too far,” she said, according to Sputnik News. “None of us dress ostentatiously. I, for example, wear a black suit for meetings. I don’t think I need to listen to what designers say.”
Although it’s almost exclusively her hairstyle that’s acquired fame outside of mother Russia, there is a much more commendable act that Petrenko should be known for, according to Newsweek.
She successfully negotiated the safe release of three child hostages in 1993 and offered herself to the professional kidnappers — who forced school children and a teacher into a helicopter rigged with explosives for a $10 million ransom.
Petrenko’s actions helped lead to the ruthless criminals’ capture.