(Moscow) Vladimir Putin celebrated his 70th birthday on Fridaye birthday under a shower of praise from Russian officials, the Orthodox patriarch going so far as to see him as a gift from God, despite Russia’s isolation and its setbacks in Ukraine.
Posted at 9:54 a.m.
Coincidence of the calendar or not, the same day the Nobel Peace Prize has a tinge resolutely critical of the Putin system, of its Belarusian ally and of the offensive in Ukraine, the Committee having awarded the imprisoned Belarusian activist Ales Beliatski, the NGO Russian Human Rights Memorial and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties.
In Russia, the Russian elite has multiplied laudatory and dithyrambic statements about Mr. Putin, without ever referring to the recent military defeats on the Ukrainian front or the growing isolation of Moscow, targeted by a shower of sanctions.
“God has placed you in power so that you can carry out a mission of particular importance and great responsibility for the fate of the country and its people”, enthused Patriarch Kirill, calling for prayers for the health of the Russian president.
Kirill also wished the Russian president, in power for more than 22 years and who can stay until 2036, “physical and moral strength for many years”.
PHOTO KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Patriarch Kirill and Vladimir Putin, in May 2016
birthday at work
Mr. Putin’s main ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has seen fit to give him a tractor for his birthday, of which Minsk is a reputable producer, according to his unofficial Telegram channel, Pool Pervogo.
According to the years, Mr Putin has alternated stays in the taiga with his Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, and work meetings, without public celebrations, most often going to Saint Petersburg, his birthplace, for his birthday.
He gathered there on Friday the leaders of countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), an organization which brings together several countries of the former USSR, for an “informal summit”.
Mr. Putin appeared in a photo broadcast by Pool Pervogo surrounded by other leaders in front of a mountain of watermelons and a carpet of fruits of all kinds.
Before this meeting, several presidents of the CIS countries have already sent him their messages of congratulations, the Tajik leader Emomali Rakhmon hailing a “strong and wise leader”.
PHOTO DARKO VOJINOVIC, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A pro-Russian Serbian group wished “Happy Birthday to President Vladimir Putin from his Serbian brothers” on a sign in Belgrade.
Russian officials were also quick to congratulate the master of the Kremlin.
The authoritarian Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov hailed “one of the most influential and outstanding personalities of contemporary times”.
Mr. Kadyrov, close to Mr. Putin, and accused of multiple abuses in Chechnya, was promoted to the rank of colonel-general on Wednesday by Vladimir Putin, on his own birthday.
Assassination of Politkovskaya
The speaker of the lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, published a drawn portrait of the Russian president on Telegram, proclaiming: “if there is Putin, there is Russia”.
The leaders of the Ukrainian territories annexed by Moscow also went there with their compliment, the separatist leader Denis Pushilin expressing his “tremendous gratitude” for the offensive against Ukraine.
If Russian officials never criticize Vladimir Putin in principle, signs of discontent have recently appeared within the Russian elite because of the defeats in Ukraine, without calling into question the merits, according to them, of the attack.
Ramzan Kadyrov thus criticized the military command after the loss of the Lyman logistics node in the East and a senior parliamentary figure Andrei Kartapolov publicly called on the army to “stop lying” about its setbacks.
Several officials and propagandists have also criticized the chaotic way in which the mobilization decreed by Vladimir Putin is carried out, without however attacking the head of state. This mobilization pushed tens of thousands of Russians into exile.
Vladimir Putin’s birthday on Friday also marks the anniversary of the murder of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politskovskaya in 2006, a crime whose masterminds have never been brought to justice. Mme Politkovskaya would have been 64 years old.