ROME – ‘Putin with puppy’, a two-by-two-meter canvas unveiled in his St. Petersburg, and a new judo center, the ‘Putin’, inaugurated in Chechnya: two of the gifts from a birthday, the 70th, which for the president of Russia appears more complicated than others in the past. The canvas is the work of Alexei Sergienko and will be exhibited on the banks of the Neva, in the hometown of Vladimir Vladimirovich. “He represents the head of state as the hero of simple human stories,” the artist explained to the local broadcaster Spdnevnik.
FOR PUTIN A WORKING BIRTHDAY
Right in St. Petersburg, Putin today hosts a summit with Belarusian, Armenian, Uzbek and Tajik counterparts, at the helm of member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States born from the ashes of the USSR. It is therefore a working birthday, underlines the Moscow Times newspaper, suggesting that it could be to mark it the difficulties of the “special military operation” in Ukrainewith the advances of the Kiev army and the discontent generated in Russia by the military mobilization ordered by the Kremlin to reverse the trend.
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CELEBRATIONS FOR PUTIN’S 70 YEARS
Celebrations are planned however in Chechnyain the Caucasus, where the head of the local republic Ramzan Kadyrov paid homage to Putin just yesterday: “The peoples of Russia”, he wrote on Telegram, “are very lucky to have such a president“. For the 70th, “major events” are then planned. Between these horse racing and the inauguration of the judo centera martial art practiced and loved by Putin.
PREVIOUS BIRTHDAY WITH BERLUSCONI
Several times in the past the president had spent his birthday abroad, perhaps a guest of international summits. On one occasion he had participated in a game of hockey, one of his favorite sports, along with celebrities and champions. There had also been a birthday in Russia in company with the former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
SOCIALS REMEMBER THE MURDER OF ANNA POLITKOVSKAJA
Different on October 7, 2006marked by the killing of Anna Politkovskaya: the journalist, critical of Putin, was murdered in the front door of her house in Moscow, right on Putin’s birthday, after denouncing human rights abuses in Kadyrov’s Chechnya. A coincidence that is pointed out by several users on Twitter, so much so that the journalist’s name ends up among the trending topics of the social network: from Amnesty International to activists and politicians, many remember Politkovskaya.
It was the #7ottobre of 2006 when #AnnaPolitkovskaya she was killed with four gunshots in the elevator of the apartment building where she lived, in the center of Moscow.
A reporter who never lowered her voice. pic.twitter.com/DGUw9F4Ble— Amnesty Italia (@amnestyitalia) October 7, 2022
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