Moscow, Russia | AFP |
Russian officials on Friday hailed Vladimir Putin on his 70th birthday, praising him for his role in modern Russian history.
The same day, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to three human rights organisations and activists: Ales Bialiatski of Belarus, Russia’s Memorial group and Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties.
The committee said it wanted the prize to highlight the “way civil society and human rights advocates are being suppressed” in Russia.
In Russia, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill said that Putin’s reign over Russia had been mandated by God.
Kirill wished “health and a long life” to the Russian leader who has been in power for more than 20 years.
The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church since 2009, Kirill has been a vocal supporter of the military operation in Ukraine.
Kirill has close ties with President Putin’s government, backing conversative values over Western liberalism.
– ‘If there is Putin, there is Russia’ –
Putin received a flurry of birthday messages, including from Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov who wished “good health, long life and successes” to the Russian president in a video statement mixed with archive footage and emotional music.
“Putin has changed the position of Russia in the world and made it a nation to be reckoned with!” Kadyrov said.
The speaker of Russian parliament Vyacheslav Volodin said on Telegram: “if there is Putin, there is Russia.”
Around 40 people from 20 different ethnic groups making up Russia took part in a flash mob near the Kremlin, according to state-run agency TASS.
Putin was also praised by officials installed by Moscow in the Ukrainian regions it partially controls and claims to have annexed.
Kremlin-backed leader of Zaporizhzhia region Yevgeny Balitsky said on Telegram that “thanks to Vladimir Vladimirovich and the people of Russia, the Zaporizhzhia region became part of the great country, reunited with its family.”
His counterpart in the Donetsk region Denis Pushilin said “for the residents of Donbas, the name of the leader of our country is forever associated with the most important event in recent history — the return home.”
Seven months into the Ukraine offensive, Putin is isolated from Western countries and has been looking east in the face of unprecedented sanctions.
Later on Friday he is due to attend an informal summit with leaders of post-soviet countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in his hometown Saint Petersburg, according to the Kremlin.
© Agence France-Presse
