You're reading: Agency owner: Nemtsov’s Ukrainian girlfriend was briefly mail-order bride

Before she met Russian politician Boris Nemtsov, Ukrainian model Anna Duritska has allegedly tried her luck as a mail-order bride.

Back in 2011 the woman, then a 19-year old economics student, joined a Kyiv bridal agency Bridge of Love to look for a husband abroad, according to the agency owner.

The Bridge of Love operates in Kyiv since late 1990s and specifies in connecting Western men with Ukrainian women looking to marry a foreigner. The agency website describes its women as “not emancipated” and “without excessive ambitions.”

According to the agency owner Tamara Dokukina, Duritska joined the agency together with several other models, but withdrew her profile just several months after entering. Dokukina says she recognized the young woman and recalled her name after seeing her in the news.

In her time at the agency, she never met any men. Whenever she received an offer to meet, she would say she was too busy.

“The problem was, she looked for someone young. Even 37 or 39-year-olds were too old for her,” Dokukina recalls, adding that Western men in their 20s almost never come looking for a bride in Ukraine.

“I guess she has changed her mind (about age),” Dokukina said, referring to Duritska’s relationship with Nemtsov.

Duritska has been avoiding journalists and couldn’t be reached for a comment.

Duritska, 23, was with Nemtsov, 55, when Russian opposition leader was shot dead in Moscow on the night of Feb. 27. The couple were walking across the bridge, heading to Nemtsov’s apartment after having a late dinner in a restaurant, when an unknown assassin gunned down Nemtsov.

Duritska was interrogated for three days by Russian investigators before she was allowed to leave Russia and return to Kyiv. The woman landed in Boryspil airport in Kyiv late on March 2 and has been avoiding journalists since.


Anna Duritska in Moscow on March 1, during the time she was interrogated by local police about Boris Nemtsov murder. (Photo by Ilya Yashin, www.twitter.com/ilyayashin)

In a short interview to Russian TV channel Dozhd on March 1 Duritska said she didn’t see the attacker as he had approached from her back.

According to the model’s mother Inna Duritska, her daughter was dating Nemtsov for 2.5 years. In an interview to the 1+1 TV station she said that Nemtsov has treated her daughter very well and had taken her to Switzerland for medical services.

“He was the love of her life,” she told 1+1 on March 1. “I think noone else has ever treated her so well.”

Kyiv fashion photographer Darya Buznikova who photographed Duritska in 2012 for a modeling portfolio, recalls her as a “nice, pleasant girl,” who was easy to work with.

“She seemed smart beyond her age,” Buznikova told Kyiv Post.

Apart from modeling, Duritska has worked as an operator in a travel agency for several months in 2011-2012. In December of 2012 she was looking for a secretary job in Kyiv. Her CV can still be found on a job search website. In it, she described herself as “optimistic, creative, and proactive.”

Kyiv Post staff writers Yuliana Romanyshyn and Olena Goncharova contributed to this story.