Originally Posted by: paul_pipkin 
Agree with Val, & I observe once again what neither Masha fans nor the trash-talking media seem to want to recognize--save for a horrific historic accident (Chernobyl), Maria is Belarusian.
I wrote in Shoutbox: Clearly the real contenders are Eastern--at this point, most likely the "Belarusian sisters", Masha & Vika.
With no comparison between the individuals, hell no 
, the rivalry is rather a kinda Ivanovic-Jankovic situation. 
Fascinating. 
Maria Sharapova was born in the russian republic of the URSS. She is not Belarussian, she is Russian and she is going to play for Russia at the olympic games. Of course she may have relatives who lived in Belarussia. For example I know plenty of Russian people who live in Belarussia and I also know many Belarussians who live in Russia. But you should remember one very important thing that Russian&Belarussian people are Slavic people and they are very similar according their religion, history&culture.
The history of Belarus, or, more correctly of the Belarusian ethnicity, begins with the migration and expansion of the Slavic peoples throughout Eastern Europe between the 6th and 8th centuries. East Slavs settled on the territory present-day Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, assimilating local Baltic — (Yotvingians, Dniepr Balts), Ugro-Finnic (Russia) and steppe nomads (Ukraine) already living there, their early ethnic integrations contributed to the gradual differentiation of the three East Slavic nations. These East Slavs were pagan,animistic, agrarian people whose economy included trade in agricultural produce, game, furs, honey, beeswax and amber.
During the 9th and 10th centuries, Scandinavian Vikings established trade posts on the way from Scandinavia to the Byzantine Empire. The network of lakes and rivers crossing East Slav territory provided a lucrative trade route between the two civilizations. In the course of trade, they gradually took sovereignty over the tribes of East Slavs, at least to the point required by improvements in trade.
The Rus' rulers invaded the Byzantine Empire on few occasions, but eventually they allied against the Bulgars. The condition underlying this alliance was to open the country for Christianization and acculturation from the Byzantine Empire.
The common cultural bond of Eastern Orthodox Christianity and written Church Slavonic (a literary and liturgical Slavic language developed by 8th century missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius) fostered the emergence of a new geopolitical entity, Kievan Rus' — a loose-knit network of principalities, established along preexisting trade routes, with major centers in Novgorod (currently Russia), Polatsk (in Belarus) and Kiev (currently in Ukraine) — which claimed a sometimes precarious preeminence among them.
"I'd love to open a tennis school for children in my hometown of Sochi." said Sharapova Maria.
