UCL in the News: The queen of Ukraine's image machine

She has become instantly recognisable the world over for that hair: the artful arrangement of traditional braids - sometimes dubbed "the Yulia". …

The style evoking an idealised Ukrainian peasant girl chimes with her uncompromising nationalist views. …

Her former image consultant Oleh Pokalchuk - who says he came up with the idea in the early 2000s - explains that the idea was to project Ms Tymoshenko as a Ukrainian archetype. …

The look was key to the former prime minister's slick campaign in the latest election. …

"Her image-making is very interesting and delicately balanced," says Andrew Wilson an expert on Ukraine at the UCL School of Slavonic & East European Studies (SSEES).

"She comes across as feminine but forceful, glamorous but national - and instantly recognisable.

"The heart is a political message - hers is the politics of moral principle as opposed to grubby compromise. In a way, she is the heart - the conscience of the nation. It follows on from the way that she campaigned last year," he says. …

"There is certainly a contradiction," says Mr Wilson. "She is a kind of Eva Peron figure - on the side of the poor but in a fur coat." …

"Image is very important in Ukraine," says Mr Wilson. "It's a very TV-based society, and television was the primary medium of the campaign." …

Kathryn Westcott, BBC News