Michelle Obama Bringing Glamour to Moscow

In the United States, first ladies are accustomed to coming under the media spotlight — and Michelle Obama seems to revel in it.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama host a reception for Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Pride Month in the East Room of the White House, Monday, June 29, 2009, in Washington. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

(AP)

On a recent trip to Paris, she impressed the fashion-conscious French with her chic designer outfits standing side-by-side with the country's former supermodel First Lady Carla Bruni. In Britain, she famously breached palace protocol by putting her arm around Queen Elizabeth II.

And she does not hesitate to speak her mind on a range of important social issues, such as health and education.

Many Russians, traditionally conservative, look askance at such assertiveness.

"A wife should be sitting at home, creating comfort and cooking food," said Zoya Getmanova, a female pensioner living in Moscow. "She could express her opinions over the dinner table, but she shouldn't meddle in politics."

Perhaps in deference to Russia's uneasiness about a political wife with popular support of her own, U.S. White House officials have suggested Michelle Obama will avoid the limelight during the visit.

Svetlana Medvedeva, meanwhile, has flitted between the shadows and the spotlight. She is liked by younger Russians, who follow her appearances at celebrity bashes and her frequent outings — hand in hand — with her husband.

She has acquired a reputation as a tenacious networker who helped restart her husband's career in the mid 1990s, and is said to play an influential role in his career behind the scenes. Trained as an economist, she gave up her own job to look after the couple's only child, born in 1996.

Despite all that, Svetlana barely breaks the mold crafted by so many first ladies in Russia before her.

She largely confines her public observations to carefully rehearsed speeches; she provides sympathetic interviewers with bland comments on womanhood. She dresses conservatively in tailored, pastel-colored outfits.

Michelle Obama's fashion sense attracts comparisons with Jacqueline Kennedy, and there is a Web site entirely dedicated to what she wears.