Miss Russia, Elmira Abdrazakova, becomes target of racist abuse over her ethnicity

Elmira Abdrazakova, the winner of the Miss Russia pageant, has become a target of racist abuse as many social media users are accusing her of "not being Russian enough."

The Sun reports Abdrazakova, 18, was forced to shut down all her social media accounts after the young model began receiving numerous hateful posts criticizing her for being a member of one of the country's ethnic minorities.

Abdrazakova's father is Tartar, a Russian ethnic minority, and she was born in Kazakhstan.

Though the 18-year-old beauty queen is puzzled by the hatred she's been getting for her origins, she understands that the mean comments don't reflect badly on her, but on the people who write them.

"The nationality question - I don't really understand it, I don't understand why men would write to a young girl offensive things about her nationality," she told Sky News. "It was bizarre for me when men were writing things like that to me, I was surprised we have people of that sort here."

In the end, Abdrazakova expects this experience will inspire other girls to grow, develop and work hard.

"For many teenage girls Miss Russia will become a role model, a measure of beauty," she said. "Maybe some girls will look at me and get inspired by my experience to grow, to develop, to work hard. I hope they can see that in life you can reach something without big money."

Abdrazakova will be representing Russia at the 2013 Miss World pageant which will take place on September 28 in Jakarta, Indonesia.