NA aka Ruslana biography

Real biography: Life Story

Ruslana Korshunova was born in Almaty, Kazakh SSR, and was of Russian descent. She spoke fluent Russian, English and German. She was discovered in 2003, when All Asia magazine printed a story on Almaty's local German language club, which Korshunova was then attending. Her photograph, which was featured in the article, caught the attention of Debbie Jones of Models 1, who tracked down and signed up the then 15-year-old Korshunova. Nicknamed the Russian Rapunzel she was known for her long knee length chestnut hair in her early work.

Korshunova was represented by IMG (New York, Paris, London and Milan), Beatrice (Milan), Traffic Models (Barcelona), Marilyn Models and iCasting Moscow, which was her mother agency. Korshunova modeled for the covers of Elle (France), Vogue (Poland) and Vogue (Russia). She also modeled in print-ads for Blugirl by Blumarine, Clarins, Ghost, Girbaud, Kenzo Accessories, Marithé & François, Max Studio, Moschino, Old England, Pantene Always Smooth, Paul Smith and Vera Wang lingerie.

Death

On June 28, 2008 at around 2:30 p.m., Korshunova died after falling from the ninth-floor balcony of her apartment at 130 Water Street in Manhattan's Financial District. Police stated there were no signs of a struggle in her apartment and concluded that Korshunova's death is an apparent suicide.

One of her friends stated that Korshunova had just returned from a modeling gig in Paris, noting that she seemed to be "on top of the world" with no apparent reason why she would commit suicide. Korshunova's former boyfriend, Artem Perchenok, said he dropped Korshunova off at her apartment several hours before her death after they watched the Demi Moore film Ghost together. "She was a good person," he told The New York Post. However, she appeared brokenhearted and angry in some of her postings on a social networking site. Korshunova's most telling message came three months ago: "I'm so lost. Will I ever find myself?" Another posting read: "It hurts, as if someone took a part of me, tore it out, mercilessly stomped all over and threw it out." One cryptic entry in March reads: "My dream is to fly. Oh, my rainbow it is too high." Other postings revealed anger: "I'm a bitch. I'm a witch. I don't care what you say ... I know why my other relationships didn't work out, 'cause I'm unpredictable."

Even though Korshunova's death was officially ruled a suicide by the police, on June 30, 2008 media speculated that she was a victim of a Russian Mafia.