The High Price of Driving in Russia

Feb. 5, 2008 — -- Sometimes not even a black belt in martial arts can save you, or your car.

Anna Loginova, Moscow's popular model and glamour girl, died a week ago trying to prevent her Porsche sport utility vehicle from becoming one of the 14,000 luxury cars stolen in Moscow every year. Loginova, 29, was also a trained bodyguard.

She was something of a Russian Cinderella. And it is this fairy-tale quality that gave her so much exposure. Many Russians loved Loginova for being the village girl who hit the Moscow scene big time.

She came from an impoverished rural part of Russia, with high unemployment, five hours away — by car — from Moscow. She was already 24 when she started her modeling career — a relative senior to make it to the top in cutthroat Moscow.

That fateful evening a week ago, her defense training and instincts may have worked against her. Driving through a neighborhood in southeast Moscow, on her way to pick up a kitten she had found in an ad, she stopped at a crossing. A silver, Russian-made Zhiguli sedan pulled up, a man jumped out, dragged Loginova out of her SUV and sped off.

According to eyewitnesses, Loginova grabbed the door handle of her Porsche. Police investigators believe it's likely her hand got stuck there.

"That's when her profession as a bodyguard backfired — she reacted instinctively. How could she respect herself if she hadn't tried to stop the assailant?" psychologist Mikhail Vinogradov told Russian TV.

The speeding SUV dragged Loginova down the road. She died from head injuries. Her body was found down the road later that evening.

"This is a mistake even seasoned police officers make," Vinogradov said. "Someone grabs something from you. You react automatically to stop them. If she had not resisted, she would have just lost her car and not her life."

Loginova's death is making headlines in Russia even a week after her death. On Sunday, Russian NTV nationwide network carried two primetime news shows devoted to her death. Carjacking is not uncommon in Russia.

"Many people get killed here in connection with car crime, but it takes a high profile death for people to appreciate the risk they face in Russian cities when at the wheel of their dream car," a spokesperson for Russian traffic police told ABC News.