China is recruiting an increasing number of – often very young – models from Russia and especially Siberia to work at catwalk shows. Officially she was only allowed to work three hours a week. She has told to her mother, calling her before the collapse: “I am so tired. I so much want to sleep.” Her mother said Vlada had told her she was constantly tired but was too afraid to go to hospital.
Vlada Dzyuba during a fashion show
Her mother was trying to get a visa to fly out to be with her young daughter. The head of the Perm modeling agency behind her trip, Elvira Zaitseva, said: “No-one expected it to lead to such consequences.” It is now claimed the youngster was on a ‘slave labour’ contract without medical insurance. Kremlin human rights ombudsman in Perm, Pavel Mikov, is personally investigating the girl’s death. Vlada was to turn 15 on 8 November. Her family has appealed to Russian diplomats to secure answers to the conditions under which she lived, worked and died.
