On October 7, 2014 Russian President Vladimir Putin turned 62. According to media the Russian leader had spend this day in the Siberian forest hundreds of miles from civilization. He was taking this day off, the first time in 15 years in power.
But the citizens of Russia were actively celebrating the birthday of the beloved national leader.
One of the members of Duma recently suggested making Putin’s birthday a national holiday. And Russians seem supportive of the idea. One example of one hundred thousand demonstrations of love to their President in the Chechen capital of Grozny.
ABC NEWS presented pretty elaborated coverage of the celebration of Putin’s birthday in Russia.
To believe Russian media, the entire world was celebrating Putin’s birthday as enthusiastically as the Russians.
Moscow. A banner, depicting U.S. President Barack Obama wearing a Putin T-shirt.
Several Russian sources informed Russians that about a store just opened in New York, which sells t-shirts with Putin’s portrait. According to these publications “The young American designer thus thanked the Russian President for his peacemaking policy.“ “The designer Julius Kasinskis… calls Putin’s Chief peacemaker of modernity.”
Those are quotes from the fallowing publication, which contains a video of the activity of the shop.
Below is the coverage of the shop activity made by NTV, one of the major Russian National TV stations. The program is entitled: “Peacemaker and superhero: the sales of t-shirts with Putin’s portrait are started in New York”:
http://www.ntv.ru/novosti/1231644/
It is interesting, that none of Russian publications in English has the address of the “Peacemaker” shop. Probably Russians were afraid that Americans, if they would learn the address, might come to the shop to demonstrate their protest. For those who are interested the shop is located on the corner of 20th street and Broadway and is going to be open only for two weeks.
According to the Russian media the t–shirts with Putin’s portrait are in high demand in many cities of the world. And the world’s love for Putin is not limited only to the t-shirts buying. Here is Russian news from Geneva:
http://lifenews.ru/news/142201
“The three-meter figure of Vladimir Putin became the fourth leg of a huge monument in the form of chair at the Place des Nations in Geneva. Thus activists decided to thank the Russian president for his peacemaking activities.
“The idea of creating the monument belongs to Vermilenu Paul, director of the non-governmental organization that helps refugees. Construction embodies protest against the use of anti-personnel land mines, depriving millions of people of their limbs.”
Here is a typical comment to this news on a Russian web site by a Russian Sergei Ivanov:
“I think that not only a small group of Swiss understands that Putin is the only real president in the world. Many Europeans understand it, but they are afraid to talk about it. Don’t chicken-out, wipe your snot! We’ll protect you from the United States!”
How is the news of this type come about? Among the known creators is the global public relations firm Ketchum Inc.
According to Wikipedia:
“Ketchum Inc and its subsidiary GPlus Europe are among the PR agencies used by the Russian government to tout the alleged benefits of working in partnership with Russia. The Russian government reportedly spends millions on these operations. GPlus specializes in recruiting former EU officials and eminent journalists. Gregor Kreuzhuber, who leads the company’s pro-Gazprom operations, was previously European Commission industry spokesman. Peter Witt is a retired German deputy ambassador to the EU before he was hired by GPlus. Angus Roxburgh, another GPlus worker, covered the First Chechen War for the BBC as the BBC’s Moscow’s Correspondent from late 1991. In October 2009 the EUObserver reported of a new pro-Russia campaign in Brussels.”
