A Russian politician has offered some sage¹ advice to women struggling to afford imported beauty products: use beetroot instead of lipstick².

 

Siberian senator Igor Chernishev suggested women who could not afford expensive imported lipstick could opt³ for the 'natural look' or even use beetroot as an alternative to make-up.

 

Mr Chernishev, who represents the city of Tomsk, wrote on a Russian website: 'Women can live without imported lipstick, men like a natural look.

 

'And if they really must use make-up on the lips – there's no problem, they can use beetroot. It's natural and chemicals don't enter the body.'

 

The senator also claimed that Russian women had no need to buy expensive imported underwear. 'Our women will look better in lingerie made in Moscow than in France,' he said.

 

It comes as Barack Obama warned President Vladimir Putin was at the centre of 'a huge economic contraction⁴' due to the Ukraine crisis.

 

Speaking to CNN yesterday [SUN] Obama rejected suggestions he had been 'outmanoeuvred' by Putin.

 

He said: 'Right now, he's presiding over the collapse⁵ of his currency, a major financial crisis and a huge economic contraction.

 

'That doesn't sound like somebody who has rolled me or the United States of America.'

 

The EU and the US have imposed a series of economic sanctions on Russia, and the financial crisis there has seen the rouble halve⁶ in just a few months.

 

The effects of the crisis are being felt not just within the country, but further afield too, with France's ski resorts reporting a dip in super-rich and middle class Russians visiting tourist destinations.

 

Falling Russian tourism has also been reported in Austria, Germany, Cyprus, as well as in the UK.

点击收听单词发音