Putin’s 70th birthday: the president gets a tractor and pumpkins as a gift

To celebrate his 70th birthday, Putin held an “informal meeting” with some of the leaders of the former Soviet Union, including Armenia, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Tajikistan, in St Petersburg on Friday. The last two also brought gifts. For example, Putin received a coupon for a tractor from Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Imam Ali Rahmon of Tajikistan gave him a mountain of watermelons and pumpkins. The Russian leader also received calls from Cuba, Turkey, South Africa, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, among other countries. Even Kim Jong Un of North Korea sent Putin birthday wishes.

Locally, state media praised the president, festivities were held in schools and Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church called for prayers on Putin’s birthday. “God has placed you at the helm of power so that you can render a very important and responsible service for the future of the country and the people entrusted to you,” the head of the Russian Church said in a congratulatory telegram to the president. .

The Ukrainian side also paid attention to Putin’s birthday. But in a very different way. There was a lot of laughter online from the Russian president and the Ukrainian armed forces calling for a donation of Ukrainian weapons in honor of Putin’s birthday. Ukrainian hackers decided to celebrate the president’s birthday by breaking into the website of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, NATO’s post-Soviet counterpart. There they sent the message: “We congratulate Putin on his last birthday and wish him a” comfortable “flight to The Hague.” The site was later taken offline.

Putin himself celebrated his birthday calmly and did not respond to gifts and congratulations. I kept working.

Read also. Putin’s dream of a Eurasian union shattered, and the consequences of his miscalculation went even further

(sgg)