MOSCOW, April 21 (RIA Novosti) – A YouTube video featuring Crimean Prosecutor General Natalia Poklonskaya has gained an Internet following comparable with the popularity of the world’s leading pop stars, a Russian music producer told RIA Novosti Monday.
“How does it work on the Internet today? A feverish trend appears, it spreads out, gains momentum. And I accept that the public just likes this beautiful lady,” Iosif Prigozhin told RIA Novosti.
Over the past five days, the number of people who watched Poklonskaya’s video on YouTube took off from one million to nearly six million, becoming the most popular Russian video on the web and besting several world pop stars.
According to YouTube statistics released Monday, a new video by famous rapper and producer Pitbull called “Wild Wild Love” saw 5.7 million views in three weeks, while a collaboration of Rihanna and Eminem in the video “Numb” was watched by only two million people.
Poklonskaya’s video is entitled “Nyash Mash” and was pieced together from fragments of Russian TV reports, press conferences and Japanese cartoons by blogger Enjoykin. Poklonskaya “sings” the words: “We do not have a moral right to sit idle. Our task is to fix the work of public prosecution in this country.”
The 33-year-old Poklonskaya was appointed prosecutor general of the Republic of Crimea last month. She said that she decided to take the position because she “could no longer tolerate lawlessness and wanted to show people that there is protection, there is law and everybody is equal in front of it, and that power also exists and it is the power of people.”
Crimea, formerly a part of Ukraine, held a referendum on reunification with Russia on March 16 in reaction to dangerous nationalist rhetoric from the new leadership in Kiev. Over 96 percent of voters supported integration into the Russian Federation, and a treaty providing for reunification was signed on March 18.
