I'm hoping those guns are fake because this could have ended up with her being so pissed off she grabs one of them and shoots her dumbass boyfriend for being such a dumbass.
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Now Playing: "The Hunt for the Two Missing Nintendo 64 Games" An expansion came out, but I'm still a third of the way through!
Encircled by armed police, a frightened young woman is trying to prove her innocence. It's useless. But in the end, everything will be alright: the woman is not actually being interrogated for drug possession she's about to be proposed to. This is all part of a bigger trend which is gaining massive popularity in Russia at the moment: extreme marriage proposals.
It's the morning of August 8 and Anastasia lands at Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg. Her boyfriend, Sergei, was supposed to pick her up, but he has other plans, so instead, a friend collects her.
Anastasia and her companion are just about to leave when a black minibus with tinted windows pulls up behind them. Armed men with balaclavas jump out of the car. Their uniform looks very similar to that of the Russian special unit SpezNas.
They storm Anastasia's car, open the door, and pull the young blonde out of the car. They search her bag and make a serious discovery: a thick package of white powder that looks a lot like cocaine. One of them shouts: "What is this?" Anastasia, who is visibly shocked, can only respond: "You must be mistaken. That's not mine!"
But the uniformed men are not convinced, adding: "You're suspected of supplying banned substances." The possession of this huge amount of cocaine would mean up to 20 years of prison for the young woman.
Then, one of the men uses a knife to open the powdered package and pulls out a pink box. Suddenly, he gets down on one knee and removes his mask and shouts: "Marry me!". It's Anastasia's boyfriend Sergei, proposing with a shiny ring. Relieved, Anastasia falls into his arms and says yes.
The young Russian woman has fallen victim to the so-called "extreme marriage proposal", a new type of romantic gesture that has gained a lot of popularity in Russia, thanks to the work of "The Spetsnaz (special forces) Show"
The show, run by 36-year-old Sergei Rodkin, charges up to $900 to organize these pranks, even hiring ex-military personnel to lend authenticity to the performances.
Anastasia's extreme proposal at the airport, which went viral after the BBC featured it, cost roughly $465.
When Rodkin first started in 2010, he organized the prank, free-of-charge, for friends. A year later, he turned it into a real business. Today, Rodkin operates 14 franchise companies throughout Russia and competitors are setting up shop.
Meanwhile, he complains about his customers' lack of imagination: "They all want special units, armed arrest, drugs. They can do much more if they really want to get into it." The Spetsnaz Show has even made an appearance at children's birthday parties and even at a company event where the boss was kidnapped.
Thomas Herzog, a psychotherapist, couple therapist and life coach in Berlin, thinks the reactions to these "pretend arrests" can be very different: "People with little psychological impairment already feel very threatened.
"If, however, a traumatic previous experience exists, the level of anxiety in this person is heightened by the prank. And because everyone is relieved and grateful when the whole thing turns out to be a joke, one is much quicker to say yes to the proposal."
Rodkin, who is a (real-life) policeman by profession, even asked his colleagues to work on his show. But the police force refused the private contract, which he was actually quite happy about: "If I would have had people from work here, they might have gone over the top and broken something... they can be very frightening."
Anastasia claims she wasn't angry with Sergei for his proposal, although she did admit to the BBC that it came as quite a shock: "It was really scary. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before."
While Anastasia might have reacted positively, others on the show have not. According to the BBC, one woman reacted by swearing and hitting her husband on the head with a bouquet of flowers after he had organized an extreme surprise for her 30th birthday.
Encircled by armed police, a frightened young woman is trying to prove her innocence. It's useless. But in the end, everything will be alright: the woman is not actually being interrogated for drug possession she's about to be proposed to. This is all part of a bigger trend which is gaining massive popularity in Russia at the moment: extreme marriage proposals.
It's the morning of August 8 and Anastasia lands at Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg. Her boyfriend, Sergei, was supposed to pick her up, but he has other plans, so instead, a friend collects her.
Anastasia and her companion are just about to leave when a black minibus with tinted windows pulls up behind them. Armed men with balaclavas jump out of the car. Their uniform looks very similar to that of the Russian special unit SpezNas.
They storm Anastasia's car, open the door, and pull the young blonde out of the car. They search her bag and make a serious discovery: a thick package of white powder that looks a lot like cocaine. One of them shouts: "What is this?" Anastasia, who is visibly shocked, can only respond: "You must be mistaken. That's not mine!"
But the uniformed men are not convinced, adding: "You're suspected of supplying banned substances." The possession of this huge amount of cocaine would mean up to 20 years of prison for the young woman.
Then, one of the men uses a knife to open the powdered package and pulls out a pink box. Suddenly, he gets down on one knee and removes his mask and shouts: "Marry me!". It's Anastasia's boyfriend Sergei, proposing with a shiny ring. Relieved, Anastasia falls into his arms and says yes.
The young Russian woman has fallen victim to the so-called "extreme marriage proposal", a new type of romantic gesture that has gained a lot of popularity in Russia, thanks to the work of "The Spetsnaz (special forces) Show"
The show, run by 36-year-old Sergei Rodkin, charges up to $900 to organize these pranks, even hiring ex-military personnel to lend authenticity to the performances.
Anastasia's extreme proposal at the airport, which went viral after the BBC featured it, cost roughly $465.
When Rodkin first started in 2010, he organized the prank, free-of-charge, for friends. A year later, he turned it into a real business. Today, Rodkin operates 14 franchise companies throughout Russia and competitors are setting up shop.
Meanwhile, he complains about his customers' lack of imagination: "They all want special units, armed arrest, drugs. They can do much more if they really want to get into it." The Spetsnaz Show has even made an appearance at children's birthday parties and even at a company event where the boss was kidnapped.
Thomas Herzog, a psychotherapist, couple therapist and life coach in Berlin, thinks the reactions to these "pretend arrests" can be very different: "People with little psychological impairment already feel very threatened.
"If, however, a traumatic previous experience exists, the level of anxiety in this person is heightened by the prank. And because everyone is relieved and grateful when the whole thing turns out to be a joke, one is much quicker to say yes to the proposal."
Rodkin, who is a (real-life) policeman by profession, even asked his colleagues to work on his show. But the police force refused the private contract, which he was actually quite happy about: "If I would have had people from work here, they might have gone over the top and broken something... they can be very frightening."
Anastasia claims she wasn't angry with Sergei for his proposal, although she did admit to the BBC that it came as quite a shock: "It was really scary. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before."
While Anastasia might have reacted positively, others on the show have not. According to the BBC, one woman reacted by swearing and hitting her husband on the head with a bouquet of flowers after he had organized an extreme surprise for her 30th birthday.
Sergei and Anastasia. Could they have picked anymore stereotypical Russian names? ---