Lots of Matvienko's biography in common with late Thatcher

Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko finds lots in common in her own life and the biography of late Margaret Thatcher. "I am bowing my hat to this woman. I’ve looked through her biography. We have a lot in common. She and I graduated from similar institutions of high learning (chemical pharmaceutical), we were actively involved in public activities, we started our political careers in a youth movement, we worked in parliaments, governments, etc,” Matvienko told journalists in St. Petersburg on Friday. She admitted that Margaret Thatcher had always been her ideal of woman politician. “I was happy to personally know Margaret Thatcher. I met her and she produced a strong impression on me,” Matvienko said. She described Thatcher as a smart, purpose-oriented and strong-willed person who knew how to achieve her goals. Matvienko believes that Margaret Thatcher will go down in history as an outstanding 20th-century politician who had enormous influence on development of her own country as well as on European and global politics. Matvienko, who’s the most outstanding woman in Russian politics, thinks that the name of “an iron lady” was very becoming to Thatcher. She recalled that it was the Soviet press that applied that epithet to Thatcher for the first time. “The epithet matches her character: staunch and purpose-oriented. Margaret Thatcher had many genuine supporters and as many adversaries. But I can say for sure that there were no people who were indifferent to her,” Matvienko emphasized.