The cat Dracosha, which Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas have had ever since they got married, is not the only one to join the ice-dancers in the celebration of their 6th wedding anniversary. The sportsmen's house near Moscow has become a shelter for many stray animals - they are symbols of love for those who have been hurt in their lives.

When her husband takes their cat into his arms and fondles her as if she was a child, Margarita imagines him caressing his own child in the very same way. Margarita's dream is to give birth to two children and to adopt a third one. Nothing could be more important to her than making at least one child happy.

Classical music is playing softly in Margarita and Povilas' apartment situated
in the centre of Vilnius. The whole city is clearly visible through the large
windows of the 11th floor and gleaming with the evening lights. 34-year-old Margarita, who is wearing a red sporting suit, is sitting on a huge sofa. Povilas, who is a year older than his wife, is in the kitchen busy by the bar, and keeps offering juice or water. The living room and the kitchen are joint, so it's easy for them to talk to each other. The ice dancers are rare guests in Vilnius. Margarita and Povilas were in charge of the redecoration of their flat during their short stay in Vilnius. The design of the apartment is
the result of Margarita's imagination. Interior design is one of her passions.
That's nothing special. I didn't even have the time to think it over. If I had
sat down and thought of it properly, it would have been really splendid" -
Margarita says, obviously trying to stop our compliments on her work.

But for the ice-dancing career, Margarita would happily do interior design. Now she does it only very rarely. Besides the Vilnius apartment, Rita has designed their house near Moscow. But there's one thing you can be sure about: if you come round today, it does not mean the house will look the way it looked the day before. Rita loves rearranging the furniture and does it all the time. Povilas sometimes even gets cross with me if I want to move a heavy bed, for example.

But I'm like that: if I have made a decision, I won't put things off".
However, Rita is not going to be a designer after she has finished her skating career. She does not like other people ordering her about and telling her what to do. Sometimes customers have got no taste whatsoever. They want their walls green, and their chandeliers bright red. This is something I would never accept, even though the customer is always right. I would only agree to design an apartment if it were in a newly-built-house and had to be sold immediately after the decoration."

Other Margarita's passions include ballroom dancing and costume design. She also dotes on animals, and would be very glad to work with them, if one could make a living from this kind of job. She cannot walk past a stray cat or dog in the street: she has to bring them home. Once in her Vilnius yard she found three blind kittens who could hardly breathe. Rita took them to a veterinary clinic and paid huge money for their reatment. In the end, one of the kittens stayed with the veterinary surgeon, and the other
two Rita gave to her friends. It is not unusual for her to give cats or dogs she has found in the street to someone else.

The house near Moscow is usually run by Rita's parents - Alexander and Alla - and is also home for 4 cats and 2 dogs that Rita has found in the street. Their very first pet - the cat called Dracosha - is the most precious gift Povilas made Rita for their wedding. The cat is a as old as our marriage - six! Once we were walking along the street and I saw a little kitten and started begging Povilas to let me take her home. Luckily, Povilas agreed. I didn't even hope Povilas would let me take her, because we're rarely home and can't look after a pet. Now my parents take care of our animals, but Drakosha is still my most favourite kitty ever" - Margarita says.

Povilas Vanagas is no less kind-hearted than his wife. He spent several years looking after an old lady who was nearly blind and who he was staying with in the beginning of his career. He used to buy her food and medicines, and protect her from the neighbours' suspicious looks. The old lady died more than four years ago. At least, thanks to Povilas' care, she could live comfortably" - Rita says, looking at her husband with tenderness. For a moment or two, Margarita says nothing as if dreaming about something. Povilas will make a lovely dad. Now all of his tenderness is for our animals. I'm pleased to see him take the cat into his arms and play with her for hours, fondling her as if she were a child."

Margarita and her husband have already agreed that Povilas will be the one
changing their kids' diapers. Why? We have agreed and that's it" - Margarita
smiles. Though Rita is not planning to become a mum in the near future, she and Povilas have already agreed they would like two kids and have even got the names ready for them! Though, when we ask them what they are, each gives us different names. If God'd with us, I'll have two children and then adopt a third one" - Rita shares her dreams with us. If we have two kids, we'll manage to raise a third one as well. To make a child happy who has been left by his parents is more difficult than giving birth. But I believe I will love that child as if he were my own".

Margarita never goes to an orphanage: she is just afraid of being there. I'm
afraid that if I come there, I will take a kid and not one. Is it possible to
just come in, have a look at the miserable kids and then go away?" - Rita
wonders. That is why it is easier for her to collect some toys and send them to kids from an orphanage. Though she knows a lot of lullabies, Rita has never sung them to anyone. Not even to her goddaughter (she is the daughter of Lithuanian team's head doctor, Dalius Barkauskas). Milda never falls asleep if I'm around" - Rita says. She is a very lively little girl - it is always lots of fun for both of us to be together. Though I can speak Lithuanian, she would find my accent hard to understand. So I talk to her in Russian, hoping that some day she will learn to speak my own language."
Margarita believes that her children will speak two languages - Lithuanian and Russian, as well as English and French, which the ice-dancer can also speak.

Though Rita and Povilas have been skating together since 1989, Rita hardly ever speaks Lithuanian. Why? This is a question Rita finds rather unpleasant. I do speak Lithuanian" - she explains. And I understand even more than I can say. But I just stick to my principle - not a single interview in Lithuanian".

No Lithuanian. That was a decision Margarita made quite a long time ago. When she was 17, neither of them thought their partnership would last. Povilas did not want to join the army, because they could send him wherever they wanted to. It was easier for him to join the Moscow CSCA skating club. Rita didn't have a partner at that time, either, thus she saw no point in learning Lithuanian. Why on earth should I learn it if I live in Moscow anyway, and stay in Lithuania only for a few weeks a year?
Besides, we're not going to skate together very long" - she thought.

In 1990 Lithuania gained its independence and the couple even started to think which country to represent. But there was no choice for Rita - a patriot to his bone, Povilas refused point-blank to be in the Russian team. Rita agreed to represent Lithuania because they were making more and more progress. But Lithuanian bureaucrats would not let Rita and Povilas represent the country at the Olympics of 1992 that took place in Albertville;it was the International Olympic Committee that gave them the chance to go to the Olympic Games. When Albertville Competitions were over, the press demanded that Margarita spoke Lithuanian with them. Since then, she has always been asked whether she can speak the language at all. Rita nods: I've decided not to speak Lithuanian in public, ever. First they humiliate me, and then demand that I speak Lithuanian. It comes in quite handy, though - I can understand everything people say, though
they don't think I do!" The early 1990s were not very hard for Lithuania only, but for Rita and Povilas as well. Margarita often felt people throw her dirty looks because she was Russian. The couple's future was not clear. Margarita needed to get Lithuanian citizenship badly, which sporting officials resisted as hard as they could. There was just one way to get it -
marry a Lithunian; thus Margarita got married in 1991. She had never spoken about her fictitious marriage in public so far. Not very long ago Povilas' mother told us Rita needed the Lithuanian passport badly. Now Margarita has confirmed this as well. It was only in 1994 that Rita got the citizenship for her sporting achievements.

Margarita's second wedding was quite a different one. In 2000, getting married at a Moscow registration office and giving her wedding oath, Rita believed this marriage would be for life. Her family was crying looking at Rita dressed in white and Povilas hugging her tenderly.

Rita assures us she has never even dreamt of a wedding; she has just always known she would have a family of her own one day. Neither has she ever tried to imagine what her wedding dress will look like: ever since she was a kid, they have made her new costumes for competitions, done her hair and put on her make-up, so she gradually stopped being interested in that. After having worried for so many years of what I would look
like at competitions, worrying about the wedding is just ridiculous" - Rita
tells us. She bought her wedding dress in an ordinary shop and then wore it for different parties. The big occasion was celebrated in a Moscow restaurant. One of the things that impressed Margarita most was Georgian wine: that was the last time she ever tasted it. Georgians are warm and hospitable people and their wine was just the perfect choice for the wedding!"

But it took Rita and Povilas quite a lot of time to decide to be together and
then get married. Blond and blue-eyed, Povilas was not the guy of Rita's dreams: she still likes dark-haired men with hazel eyes. Rita starts laughing, remembering the way she once pleaded Povilas to dye his hair dark. Imagine how nice we would look dancing tango together!" - she pleaded him. But there was no way Povilas would agree to dye his hair.

Why has Margarita fallen in love with her partner? First of all, he loves me
the way no other man could" - Rita says immediately. A lot of men doted on her and she has never suffered from lack of attention. This probably upset Povilas a lot. He has never shown the way he felt, though it was his heart that love grew in.

Margarita had never even suspected how Povilas felt about her till he said it
straight to her face one day. It happened at a seminar in Switzerland. We were taking off our skates in the changing room when he told me he loved me - just as simple as this," - Rita remembers. - I felt very nervous indeed. I don't like to be taken aback like that, especially when I don't even suspect anything."

After her partner's declaration of love, Margarita started thinking of what
should come next. Rita is not the person to find pleasure in playing with
people's hearts and it's always very difficult for her hurting someone. I have had to refuse many men in my life, telling them I felt nothing to them, which wasn't easy. I have always been afraid lest I should marry a man just out of pity, marry someone who I would not love, and then he would leave me and the children".

Povilas' words gave Margarita a lot to think about. Povilas is quite a
conservative man and would never agree to a civil marriage. Rita realized that once she said yes to Povilas, she had to become his wife.

Knowing how Povilas felt about her, Rita started spending more and more time with him. Povilas was a real gentleman, indeed: he took his beloved woman out to restaurants, made her gifts, but the thing that made Rita fall for him was his tenderness.

Feelings for her partner grew very slowly in Rita's heart. That was no love at first sight: she just realized that one day he could leave her life forever.
Povilas was a friend who became very dear for Rita after 10 years only. I
started thinking of how much longer we would skate together. Every season could be the last one for us. And what would come next? He would go home, to Lithuania and we'd only see each other once a year, if not less than that. We had come through it all together and now - let him go? I realized that parting with Povilas would be very hard for me. And if I felt that, that meant I wanted him beside me all the time. What was the
way to make him stay? Well, I could not tell him to buy an apartment somewhere around so we could see each other every day and feel good about it, could I? So, we had to be together somehow." - Margarita shared her thoughts with us. The thought of getting married ended in a real marriage. Neither of them has ever regretted this decision so far.

Rita can feel her husband really cares for her. He doesn't express his love
with words," - she says. - But I do feel how much he loves me. When I fall
asleep watching TV, he takes me to the bedroom upstairs in his arms, though he could wake me up. Also, he always sees to it that I should not get cold."


There were quite a lot of things that Margarita got to know about Povilas only after some time had time passed. She did not even think him one of her best friends for a long time. Povilas is very even-tempered, while Rita has got a short temper. When they had just started skating together, Rita was a student of the Moscow Institute of Physical Culture and preferred spending her free time left after the lectures and training sessions with her friends. Povilas spent his time more quietly than Rita. It was not until later that Rita found out that Povilas loved animals as much as she did and understood that he was responsible guy. Every time coming onto the ice, Rita felt uneasy knowing that there were millions of eyes looking at her. It was Povilas who found the way to calm her down making her believe she was the best one. Povilas spent a lot of time on the ice training. Though he at times felt uneasy as well, he never showed it to his partner. Rita is glad he is like that. She knows Povilas is a reliable person, a partner for life.

Lithuanians like to see a cold and practical lady in Margarita. But how can a
practical woman possibly start crying seeing a stray cat in the street? Can a
practical lady be dreaming of adopting at least one child who fate has been
unjust with so she could make him happy?

Once Rita wanted to do parachute jumping and even took special classes, but she had to go to competitions when her very first jump was due. Rita is not afraid of heights at all - this is probably something she has taken from her father who used to serve as a military pilot and then an arctic pilot.

Rita's mother used to work in the sphere of trade for a long time. She is now 64 and her health is quite delicate. She largely spends her time running her daughter and son-in-law's house and likes to look after her kitchen garden. Rita's father is 68 and he runs the ice-dancers'affairs in Moscow. Andrei, her brother, is 44, he used to play hockey and went in for boxing, but now works as a private driver. Family is something very important for Rita. Apart from her husband, her parents and her brother are the most trustworthy people in the world, people she could truly rely on, though she has always had many friends, too. The ice dancers make friends quickly: they don't even notice themselves the way they arrange a dinner with the veterinary surgeon who treated their animals or the banker who is running their affairs.

How would Margarita decribe herself? I think I've changed more than once in my life. The environment affects even the strongest people. For example, I started seeing patriotic dreams after just one week in Korea! In Korea, patriotism is in the very air - people start crying when they see their leader, though life is so hard there! People wear Communist badges and military uniform. That was absolutely awful. And what would have happened if we had stayed there a whole year? Maybe, I'd have started behaving the same way?" - Margarita thinks aloud. But no environment will change a genuine lady in her: Margarita's wardrobe is full of smart clothes. I like smart clothes and beautiful jewelry. I don't like putting on make-up very much, though, because I always have to put on a lot of it for competitions. That is why arranging my hair and putting on make-up is a true tragedy for me.

We often spend our summers in the USA and go to a lot of parties, so I take a lot of nice clothes before going there. I like dressing differently every day. Americans have got a poor taste, and they are absolutely delighted to see Europeans wearing beautiful clothes. I do not care for labels and am usually happy with cheap clothes. I just want them to look good. I don't have anything from, say, Dolce Gabbana or Versace - I can see no point in
throwing the money about. I'd rather spend the money to feed a stray dog".