How does Putin celebrate his birthdays?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

On October 7, 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated his 68th birthday. How did Putin celebrate his birthday earlier and what was the present to the head of state?

Love for the Siberian taiga

“A lump on top, let me show you,” - Vladimir Putin in a hiking suit in the middle of the forest holds a mushroom with an adherent cone on the cap and shows his discovery to the camera. Not far from him, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is sniffing another mushroom, an ordinary one. Putin took the lump for himself as a souvenir.

In 2019, the President of Russia spent the eve of his 67th birthday hiking in the Siberian taiga. According to his press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, Putin "enjoyed nature." Sergei Shoigu on the same trip dug a lingonberry bush, the president held it in his hands and advised the minister to plant it in his dacha.

October 7, 2019. Russian President Vladimir Putin during a walk in the taiga - Alexey Druzhinin / Sputnik

His birthday, October 7, was also spent by the president in nature with loved ones.

In a similar way, Putin spent his birthday in 2014 - then the president specially took the day off to go to the taiga.

“Tonight he will fly to Siberia, to the Siberian taiga, 300-400 kilometers from the nearest settlement, where he will rest on his birthday,” the press secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov said at the time. He added that the rest will take place "not in stationary living conditions", since it is several hundred kilometers to the nearest housing.

October 7, 2019. Russian President Vladimir Putin during a walk in the taiga - Alexey Druzhinin / Sputnik

Already on October 9, 2014, the President spoke at a meeting of the Council for Physical Education and Sports, where he shared his impressions of the hike.

“Walking day, in my opinion, we have never celebrated. I had a day of walking the day before yesterday. I walked almost nine kilometers through the mountains, everything still hurts, Putin admitted.

Participation in summits and congratulations from colleagues

Often, Vladimir Putin met his birthdays on work trips. So, in 2002, on the day of his 50th birthday, the president went to Chisinau (Moldova) for the CIS summit. Then the President of Moldova Vladimir Voronin presented Putin with a crystal crocodile, and the hero of the day inspected the cellars with Moldovan wine and arranged a festive dinner at the Russian embassy.

At the summit of the heads of government of the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Chisinau - Alexey Panov / Sputnik

In 2005, Putin went to a ceremonial breakfast at the Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg with the heads of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as part of the Central Asian Cooperation Organization Summit.

Then the president personally drove his fellow presidents in a black Mercedes to the building of the press center, presented the award to a mechanic from the Orenburg region, Vyacheslav Chernukha, who single-handedly extinguished a fire in a wheat field, and also met with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Vladimir Putin found himself in St. Petersburg on his birthday in 2008, when he served as prime minister. Putin was presented with an educational film "Learning Judo with Vladimir Putin" as a gift, he also took part in the 77th session of the General Assembly of Interpol, examined the complex of flood defenses and visited the Russian film studio "RWS-St. Petersburg".

An anonymous well-wisher (name not disclosed) gave Putin a two-month-old Ussuri tiger cub Masha for his birthday; she was sent to live in the Safari Park in Gelendzhik.

October 7, 2013. Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) and President of the People's Republic of China (PRC) Xi Jinping during a meeting at the summit of heads of state and government of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum on the island of Bali - Mikhail Klimentyev / Sputnik

The most exotic place to celebrate was waiting for the president in 2013, on the day of his 61st birthday - Putin went to Bali for the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit. Then on the evening of October 7, he met with the Chinese delegation, where, according to Putin, they together "raised a glass of vodka."

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe presented Putin with sake, Chinese President Xi Jinping - a cake, and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono sang the song Happy Birthday to You with a guitar.

“We (the cake - ed.) Got used to it. Everything was spontaneous, without a banquet or a feast,”Putin recalled, and admitted that he never opened the sake that day. “Do you think I was drinking here? Thank God I can control myself. We will still get to sake, I think, but already in Moscow."

Seven pucks and songs about eternal youth

In 2015, Putin celebrated his 63rd birthday on a hockey rink at the Sochi Shyba Sports Palace. Before his appearance on the ice, Russian chanson singer Denis Maidanov sang songs titled "Eternal Love", "Endless Youth" and "I'm Coming Home." The fans who got to the match raised posters "For faith, for the king!" and chanted "Happy birthday-de-no-ya!".

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) and the Volga region conference curator Valery Kamensky in the match between the national team of champions of the Night Hockey League (NHL) and the team of the Board and guests of honor of the Night Hockey League (NHL) Nina Zotina / Sputnik

Putin played number 11 in the NHL Stars Team, which also included Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and hockey players Pavel Bure, Alexander Mogilny and Vyacheslav Fetisov. She beat the NHL National Team (it was played by businessmen Arkady and Boris Rotenberg and Gennady Timchenko) with a score of 15:10, seven goals of which were scored by Putin personally.

October 7, 2015. Russian President Vladimir Putin (center in the background) after the match between the national team of champions of the Night Hockey League (NHL) and the team of the Board and guests of honor of the Night Hockey League (NHL) - Sergey Guneev / Sputnik

“Here he (Putin - ed.) Threw, the goalkeeper caught the puck in a trap, waited, as usual, a second and shook it out. And the judge overlooked this moment and did not whistle. And the birthday boy instantly reached for the puck and surprisingly nimbly shoved it into the goal between the goalkeeper pads …

The goalkeeper looked at the referee in bewilderment, he threw up his hands … ", Kommersant journalist Andrei Kolesnikov described the match, noting that the president also had" completely honest goals."

Unusual gifts

“To be honest, I don’t even always look at what is there (in the package) and often transfer them to various storages - there’s just no time,” - this is how Vladimir Putin answered the question of what gifts he likes to receive.

Vladimir Putin with the dog Horses - Vladimir Rodionov / TASS

Nevertheless, heads of other states and other politicians sometimes make public gifts to the Russian leader. So, the already mentioned Sergei Shoigu, while still the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, gave Putin a black Labrador Koni, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly - an Alabai puppy named Verny, and the ex-mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov - a goat named Skazka.

President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov congratulated Russian colleague Vladimir Putin on Angel Day and presented him with an Alabay puppy - Mikhail Metzel / TASS

In 2017, Silvio Berlusconi presented the president with a large duvet cover depicting himself with the president shaking hands against the backdrop of the famous St. Basil's Cathedral and the Colosseum.

On his 50th birthday, the president was presented with a collection of "100 anecdotes about Putin" and a 50-meter scarf. Over the years, Putin was also given apple seedlings and an erotic calendar depicting students of the journalism department of Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov.

Putin can not accept all the gifts - according to the protocol, Gazeta.ru writes, the president can keep a souvenir worth no more than 10 thousand rubles - the rest automatically becomes the property of the state and is kept in a special museum in the first building of the Kremlin.