The politics of style: Glamorous new Ministers bewitch media

The new Kremlin Ministers have a clear task ahead of them. But the media seems more interested in how they look, with most devoting space to the constrasting looks of the eye-catching Tatyana Golikova and the more formally-dressed Elvira Nabiullina.

With less than six months to go before the Presidential election, the members of Mr Putin’s new Cabinet don't have much time to strut their stuff.
 
The President wants them to tick like Swiss clocks, stay active and get things done.
 
Replacing MiKhail Zurabov as Heath and Social Development Minister is not only a woman, but a woman who is eye-catching.
 
Tatyana Golikova worked at the Finance ministry for two decades and stepped into the media’s spotlight when her love affair with the Minister of Industry and Energy Viktor Khristenko was made public.
 
With her new position Tatiana and her fellow Minister and husband are set to be a golden couple.
 
“They are going to be a popular pair. They are beautiful talented people. Russia will not be afraid to put them on the world's stage,” says Olga Vandysheva, columnist from Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
 
The second woman to join the cabinet takes over from German Gref as Minister of Trade and Economic Development.  But Elvira Nabiullina won’t inherit his fashionable wardrobe.

Mr Gref, always clad in fine-tailored suits, in the latest colour schemes, might secretly cringe at Elvira Nabiullina’s basic black suit.
 
But is her style a indicator of her politics?
 
And what about the new Regional Development Minister, Dimitry Kozak. Commentators are already predicting the new ladies of the Cabinet will automatically upstage him.
 
Even the front page of Thursday’s edition of Komsomolskaya Pradva is ladies only.
 
“It's not surprising that these woman are going to be the main focus. Dimitry Kozack has worked with the President. He is not a rookie, but all the attention is going to go to the ladies. They are new, talented, promising women and everything is going to circle around them,” Olga Vandysheva said.