Organisers of the Mrs Russia beauty pageant have been forced to defend their winner after widespread mockery of her broke-out on line.
Natalya Oskar, 34, from Khabarovsk in far east Russia, won the contest on Tuesday.
But she has been mercilessly mocked by social media users after a ‘real’ photo of her circulated online, showing off her very full lips and short stature.
According to reports in the Telegraph, organisers have now blasted the critics, saying the photo was ‘taken at a bad angle’.
And they insist she is a worthy winner and that the judges ‘loved her’.
The photo on the left (taken from the winner’s Instagram account is noticeably different to the ‘real’ photo that circulated online
The Mrs Russia contest – which is different from the Miss Russian pageant – is for married women who have children.
The winner was Natalya Oskar – a mother of a toddler – whose Instagram feed is full of beautifully, softly-lit photos of her.
But after she won, a photo from the competition which showed her with a greasy forehead and creases underneath the cheeks was shared widely online.
Social media users – many from Ukraine – then made derisive remarks about her full lips, heavy make-up and short stature.
Others suggested she had overdone plastic surgery, and some said she looked ‘completely different’ to the person who won.
While others said her Instagram account was clearly full of digitally-altered photos.
The mother of one regularly posts photos on her Instagram feed, where she looks young and fresh faced
What a beauty: The woman poses with a coconut and in a yellow bikini for this social media photo
Natalya Oskar, 34, competed against 82 women to win the new contest which celebrates women of all shapes and sizes
One wrote: ‘If she’s the winner, I’m a little afraid to ask if there are photos of the runners up.’
Another wrote: ‘Russia lies about everything. Even looks.’
A third wrote: ‘She won? Was she the only contender?’
Organisers were then forced to defend the ‘real’ picture, blaming bad photo angle.
‘She looks really beautiful in our official photos,’ Irina Kirsanova, the pageant’s organiser, told the Podyem media outlet.
‘I was quite taken aback by the public reaction. It was a bad photo, taken from a bad, low angle. She’s very different. Everyone in the jury saw her and loved her.’
The competition has changed format this year to welcome a broader range of contestants.
Previously only women taller than 5ft 9in and of clothes size S and XS were allowed to compete.
Some said Russia ‘lies’ about everything, even looks, while others said the photo appeared to be of a completely different woman
But organisers said they had decided to ditch those criteria and accept women as they are.
Mrs Kirsanova added: ‘This is not a modelling competition after all but a competition of married women and mothers.’
This year 83 women entered, with Mrs Oskar winning the prize after singing a song ‘I’m Your Mrs. Russia’.
Mrs Oskar teaches English and is also a singer, and lives with her husband, daughter and dog.
The Mrs Russia winner told the Star Hit tabloid that she did not care about the online bullying and denied claims she had had plastic surgery.
She said: ‘I know that I worked hard for the competition. You spend the whole day in heels, snatch a few hours of sleep and then spend morning till night in rehearsals.’
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