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The new Arnold: Anatoly Semerenko, the country's #1 bodybuilder, stands in front of Pridnestrovie's parliament

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - They both share "A.S." as their initials. Both of them are Europeans. Both rose to fame as top bodybuilders. And soon, Anatoly Semerenko may have something more in common with his idol, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Now Semerenko, the local answer to the "The Governator" and PMR's reigning bodybuilding champion, ponders a career in Schwarzenegger's footsteps. Schwarzenegger, who was born in Austria, is today a successful politician, currently serving as the 38th Governor of California.

Anatoly Semerenko recently met with leaders from "Breakthrough" (Proriv, in Russian), a youth organization which in 2006 registered itself as a political party and is making plans to field a slate of candidates in the next elections. In the party offices of Breaktrough, the bodybuilder told the political activists about his sport, while they, in turn, told him about local politics and civil society activism.

According to news agency PMR News, Anatoly Semerenko explained that bodybuilding used to be called 'athletic gymnastics'. In Pridnestrovie, bodybuilding began organizing itself in 1985, and Semerenko is currently not just the sport's #1 local practitioner but also chairman of the Pridnestrovie Bodybuilding Federation.

He gave the budding politicians health tips:
" - You should not eat a lot, but eat often. And it is very important to drink not less then two liters of water per day. And green tea, which is very healthy."

" - You should attend the gym and work out at least twice a week. Don't eat before you train, and drinks lots of water afterwards."

Information about a possible candidature was not made public, but friends say that Pridnestrovie's reigning bodybuilding champion Anatoly Semerenko is considering a political career as well. If he enters politics, he will be taking another step towards the career path of the "other A.S.", Arnold Schwarzenegger, today the governor of California,

The fact that Austrian-born Schwarzenegger was born outside the country which he currently lives in and serves is not an issue for voters, just as voters in Pridnestrovie don't care that their president - Igor Smirnov - is also not born locally. In both cases, they have reelected Schwarzenegger and Smirnov, and authorities in both places consider the will of the electorate to be the highest expression of democracy.

International goodwill ambassador for statehood recognition

Bodybuilding is a popular activity in Pridnestrovie, and is centered around the PMR Bodybuilding Federation. The federation oversees the process of developing muscle fibres through the combination of weight training, increased caloric intake, and rest. As a sport, called competitive bodybuilding, bodybuilders display their physiques to a panel of judges, who assign points based on their aesthetic appearance. Internationally, famous bodybuilders include Larry Scott, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferrigno, Steve Reeves, Serge Nubret and more recently, Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler.

For a small country which doesn't even appear on world map yet, Pridnestrovie's bodybuilders have already achieved a huge amount of international recognition.

Like their counterparts in football (soccer), they are not only local champions, but have also gone on to win the Moldovan nationals as well as top prizes in competitions in Romania, Ukraine and parts of Russia.

Due to the quirk in politics caused by the territorial dispute between Moldova and Pridnestrovie, Anatoly Semerenko is currently recognized as the national bodybuilding champion of both countries at the same time. However, Moldova - which despite the undeniable reality persists in claiming that "Transnistria doesn't exist" - only considers Semerenko the bodybuilding champ of one country, their own.

Notwithstanding Moldova's claims, Semerenko resides in Tiraspol, which he proudly says is "the capital of Pridnestrovie." He is a staunch supporter of Pridnestrovie's de facto independence and has expressed his wish to become an international goodwill ambassador when the new and emerging country seeks international statehood recognition. The last picture on this page shows him wearing a white campaign T-shirt from the 17 September 2006 independence referendum, with a logo of Tiraspol's A.V. Suvorov statue and a slogan advocating independent statehood for the majority-Slavic populated country of 555,000 inhabitants.

See also:
» Ex-strongman stumps for the Smirnov 2006 campaign [1]

On the web:
» Anatoly Semerenko photo gallery [2]