New deputy minister’s youth, racy photos fire up criticism

When Anastasia Deeva, 24, was appointed deputy interior minister on Nov. 10, the Ukrainian press and social media users questioned the appointment because of Deeva’s age.

News stories and social media posts criticized Interior Minister Arsen Avakov for appointing the 24-year-old woman to a high post, questioning both her professionalism and experience.

Criticism soon fired up even more as the press found Deeva’s artistic topless photos online. Deeva’s social media accounts were immediately filled with mocking comments questioning her intellect and making offensive suggestions about how she got the job. The UK newspaper the Daily Mail picked up the story as well, and the story went international.

Deeva has since kept her silence about the criticism and the photos. She didn’t respond to a request for comment from the Kyiv Post.

Instead, Avakov spoke in defense of his deputy.

He said that to think of a high public post as an honor that comes with age is an outdated Soviet approach that has no place in his ministry.

“The post of a deputy minister is a function,” Avakov wrote in all caps in a lengthy and emotional post he published on Facebook on Nov. 13.

“We need to understand that a 24-year-old or a 30-year-old can perform some functions better than a 50-year-old, like me. It’s normal and it works.”

On her way up

Deeva, who holds a master’s degree in political science from Kyiv Taras Shevchenko University, has been working in the Interior Ministry for almost two years.

She started as an assistant to Eka Zguladze, ex-deputy minister, who was in charge of reforming the road patrol police, which is still deemed one of the few successful reforms that took place after the EuroMaidan Revolution.

Zguladze left the ministry in May, but Deeva stayed and was promoted. She became an adviser to Avakov and the ministry’s coordinator for social projects.

In September, she was the one presenting the ministry’s plan to reform the State Emergency Service live on Ukrainian television’s Espresso channel. And when Avakov presented a new Interior Ministry’s service center in Dnipro earlier in November, Deeva stood at his side.

At her new job, Deeva will be focusing on the ministry’s international communications. She was appointed deputy minister for European integration – a relatively new position that was introduced in 2014.

Photo controversy

Commenting on the nude pictures of his deputy that were circulated online, Avakov said that she had a right to personal photos and accused critics of hypocrisy. And some of the photos, he said, were fake.

Grygoriy Deev, Deeva’s husband and a digital agency owner, also said that some of the photos were fake and threatened to sue the media that circulated them.

Some of the Deeva’s photos circulating in the media, including one where she is pictured topless, were taken from a Tumblr blog belonging to Ukrainian photographers Zhenya and Tanya Posternak, who are based in New York. The post with the photos has since been removed but can be found in Google cache.

Other criticism

Apart from her young age and taste for nude photography, the critics questioned Deeva’s previous jobs as an assistant to lawmakers Leonid Kozhara and Olena Netetska when both were the members of Party of Regions, the dominating political force of then-President Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted by the 2014 revolution.

Deputy speaker of Verkhovna Rada Iryna Gerashchenko said the Interior Ministry shouldn’t have appointed Deeva without an open competition and approval from the deputy prime minister for European integration.

“Nude photos aren’t the issue,” Gerashchenko said in a Facebook post. “Anyone can take any photos they want. Sanctimony isn’t an issue. It should be combatted, as well as sexism. The issue is the violation of the procedure of the appointment.”

But Avakov argued that the appointment was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers and Deeva was thoroughly checked and had undergone several job interviews.

Pattern of sexism

The attacks on Deeva were by far not the first case when the Ukrainian public has reacted negatively to the appointments of young female officials.

When Ihor Rainin left his job as Kharkiv governor to become President Petro Poroshenko’s chief of staff this summer, his deputy Yulia Svetlichnaya temporarily took his place.

“A 32-year-old blonde becomes governor,” read the headlines online.

And in 2015, adviser to economy minister Janika Merilo came under fire when the press found photos of her from a personal photo shoot in which she re-enacted provocative photos of the Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie.

Recovering from scandal

While Deeva isn’t commenting on the issue, her husband’s Facebook post sheds some light on how she’s feeling now. He called the day when the media publications appeared “the longest day in Nastya’s life.”

“The scariest moment was when Nastya said, ‘I’ll never be able to love the people anymore,’” Deev wrote.

It helped when Deeva started receiving many messages and calls from people supporting her, he said. Eventually, she felt better.

“At the end of the day she was back to life,” Deev wrote of his wife.

“Those who think this appointment was improper – wait and you will see it all,” he added. “If you can dig out the truth under the scandalous headlines.”

Despite the media frenzy, Deeva’s boss seems determined to back her.

“Let’s discuss Deeva’s effectiveness after she has worked for some time,” Avakov said. “I’m sure that she’ll work out great.”