Who is 17-year-old Regina Parpieva, who was interviewed by Putin

Biography of Regina Todorenko

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The heroine of our material was born in the Ukrainian city of Odessa in June 1990, and in the summer of 2020 she turned 30 years old. Regina Todorenko's height is 169 centimeters. The girl's creative talents began to manifest themselves at an early age - she played in the children's theater "Balaganchik", attended choreography and vocal classes, and was an excellent student at school.

Despite such a busy life, at first Regina did not plan to become a media person and chose... Odessa National Maritime University, where she studied at the Faculty of Transport Technologies and Systems.

However, she soon changed her mind and dropped out of school, moving to Kyiv, where she began to study the art of directing at the Kiev National University of Culture and Arts, which she successfully graduated in 2013.

The beginning of a stellar career

At the competition, Todorenko was noticed by Natalia Mogilevskaya. She personally approached the girl and invited her to the “Star Factory” casting, which was supposed to take place in Kyiv.

The future celebrity without a doubt agreed to the trip, easily passed the qualifying round and a year later became a member of the musical group “Real O” under the leadership of Natalia Mogilevskaya.

Three years later, the group released their debut album, “Dress,” for which they received the honorary “Golden Gramophone” award. With “her girls,” Regina visited many countries, giving full-scale concerts.

In 2014, Regina Todorenko’s contract with Real O ended. Mogilevskaya refused to renew it, citing the fact that the girl had already established herself as a singer and could go “on a free voyage.”

After this, the girl did not leave the creative profession. On the contrary, she took up new projects, among which the most memorable are:

role in the TV series “In One Breath” (2014);
participation in the project “Voice” Russia (2015);
place as a presenter in the famous tourist program “Heads and Tails”.

Regina once admitted that she always dreamed of traveling the world, so she never regretted her decision to get involved “in this adventure.” In addition, her partner in “Heads and Tails” was Kolya Serga, whom they knew from “Star Factory”.

Career of Regina Todorenko

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In parallel with her studies at the university, Regina took her first steps on television: at the age of 17, the girl received the role of host of the Golden Ten competition, very popular in Ukraine.

Then she moved to the reality show “Star Factory-2”, managing to be among the finalists and joining the girl band “Real O”. By the way, one of her friends in the group, who was often mistaken for Regina’s sister, was Alina Astrovskaya, about whom we already wrote.

Who is 17-year-old Regina Parpieva, who was interviewed by Putin

The editors of Rossiyskaya Gazeta have been monitoring the fate of the blind girl for several years. Regina has a rare disease - Devic's opticomyelitis, as a result of which she went blind when she was eight years old. This is a poorly understood disease, and therefore there are no standard treatments for it. With this disease, the human immune system begins to affect the body, affecting the spinal cord and brain. As a result, the patient loses vision and has impaired motor functions. Around the world, about 300 cases of this diagnosis have been recorded in adults, and about 30 in children. In Russia, 10 children live with this disease.

Photo: Arkady Kolybalov/RG

Regina first visited the editorial office of RG at the age of 14, when she received a passport. The newspaper staff celebrated this event with the girl.

After Regina's diagnosis, doctors tried many drug treatments, but nothing helped. Then it was decided to take advantage of the Italian experience, where adult patients with Devic's disease underwent successful bone marrow transplantation.

Such an operation was not performed on sick children, but Regina’s condition gradually worsened - she was confined to a wheelchair and almost did not react to those around her. The doctors decided to take a risk. The donor was the girl's brother Timur.

Regina had long wanted a dog, and on her birthday, the RG editorial office gave her a Labrador named Arvin. However, the guide dog's story did not end there - labyrinths of bureaucracy awaited them ahead.

At the time of the operation, Regina was 10 years old. The bone marrow transplant was successful, but after a few months rejection began and the situation worsened rapidly. Two years later, for the first time in the world, doctors from the Russian Children's Clinical Hospital transplanted stem cells taken from brother Timur into Regina. And it helped - the girl went into remission.

From this moment on, Regina learns to live again. She mastered many activities - weaving jewelry and toys, chess, karting, parachute jumping.

Photo: Irina Belova/RG

Regina was prepared for the parachute jump by tandem instructor Roman Chelnokov, who has 1,800 jumps under his belt. The girl jumped from a height of four kilometers.

In 2020, the girl took up swimming seriously. In April of this year, she demonstrated an outstanding result at the Russian swimming championship among blind and visually impaired youth and juniors, managing to win medals at every distance in which she took part. As a result of the competition, she brought home one gold, two silver and two bronze.

Photo: Valeria Korshunova/RG

Regina began mastering the basics of competitive swimming in the fall of 2020. Already in November 2017, at the Nizhny Novgorod region championship, she showed the best results in the 50-meter breaststroke and backstroke.

Most recently, Regina took second place at the Russian Swimming Cup, which took place in Ramenskoye near Moscow from December 14 to 17. The girl not only outpaced the members of the Russian Paralympic team, but also changed her rank from third adult to second. And today, 17-year-old Regina interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“This was her old dream,” Regina’s mother Gulnara Parpieva told RG.

Photo: Alexey Druzhinin/press service of the President of the Russian Federation/TASS

In 20 minutes, Vladimir Putin answered several questions from Regina, including how he became president, whether this job is difficult and what he will wish for the New Year.

Gulnara Parpieva and her daughter go through such a difficult life path. After the father abandoned the family, the woman was left alone with two children and devoted all her energy and time to them. She does not give up and helps children in everything. In a conversation with an RG correspondent, a woman once said: “A mother will always achieve everything for her child.”

Regina has new goals ahead - she wants to get into the Russian Paralympic swimming team and is thinking of trying her hand at social journalism. And as recent results show, these dreams are quite feasible.

Personal life of Regina Todorenko

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The TV presenter and singer announced her engagement to the ex-member of the group “Smash!!” Vlad Topalov in the summer of 2020, after which the couple legalized their relationship in the fall of the same year.

At the beginning of December, a son appeared in the family, who was named Mikhail. The festive wedding ceremony of two media personalities took place in Italy in the summer of 2020.