Happy birthday, Mr President? With Vladimir Putin turning 72 on Monday, this has become an opportunity for the Kremlin’s spin doctors to present their ideal notion of the septuagenarian sovereign. Ambitious courtiers have been competitively performing their sycophancy, as if in an over-the-top production of King Lear.
Posters were anonymously pasted up in Kyiv, vowing that ‘Putin will come and restore order’
The ponderous official paper of record, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, offered up a portrait of the diligent chief executive:
‘Russian President Vladimir Putin will celebrate his birthday in a working environment. On October 7, the head of state will meet with CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States‘) leaders who will arrive in Moscow to participate in a meeting of the Commonwealth Heads of State Council, and will also hold a number of working meetings.‘
It made a point of enumerating all the other birthdays Putin – who once described himself as a ‘galley slave’ labouring away for the good of the country – had spent working.
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