Putin Has Siberian Birthday as Russians Show Their Love
By Anatoly Medetsky Oct 7, 2014 10:34 AM ET
President Vladimir Putin’s 62nd birthday today prompted public displays of reverence for the Russian leader.
While Putin took a rare day off and disappeared from the public eye to celebrate in the Siberian wilderness, shoppers thronged to buy iPhone cases and sweatshirts bearing his portrait, often with military headgear, at the GUM department store on Moscow’s Red Square.
Artists Anna Trifonova and Ivan Yershov, who opened a pop-up outlet at the store for Oct. 6-8, drew inspiration from the legacy of Andy Warhol and “iconic” images of Che Guevara and James Bond, according to a GUM statement.
“A new world record has been set today in Grozny in creating a living human national flag and the number of the people involved,” Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said on Instagram, referring to the regional capital. “They expressed support for President Vladimir Putin and congratulated him on his birthday.”
More than 100,000 young people clad in t-shirts the colors of the Russian flag formed a 2,000-meter banner in Grozny’s streets, according to Kadyrov’s post.
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