Russian TV bosses REMOVE video of schoolchildren spelling out birthday wishes to Vladimir Putin because they feared it would make the 70-year-old president look old
- The Russian leader turned 70 on Friday, but the celebrations were fairly quiet.
- They remove a video of hundreds of children wishing Putin a happy birthday
- It comes after rumors of Putin’s poor health and the Kremlin’s fears about his image.
- One source said the Kremlin is trying not to publicize that it is of “retirement age.”
Russian television bosses have released a video in which hundreds of schoolchildren express birthday wishes to Vladimir Putin, fearing it will make the leader look old.
Putin turned 70 on Friday, but Russian officials were told not to hold or organize parties for the leader to avoid publicity about his achievement.
It comes amid a flurry of speculation about the leader’s health since he invaded Ukraine on February 24 this year.
The video, uploaded by St Petersburg TV, showed several hundred children spelling out the message “Putin is our president” in honor of his birthday.
But it was removed after just a few hours, with insiders saying they had not received any advance instructions on how to celebrate his birthday as they had in previous years, The Telegraph reports.
A source told the Russian media outlet Meduza: “Why draw attention to the fact that our president has been at retirement age for a long time?”
Hundreds of children spelled out a message to Putin in St. Petersburg’s iconic central square.
Vladimir Putin turned 70 on Friday, seven months after invading Ukraine.
State-controlled media published content celebrating Putin’s 22 years in power on Friday, but rarely mentioned how steadfast he is.
Rumors about the president’s health at age 70 have been circulating since February.
In July, the Russian president was photographed clumsily brushing mosquitoes off his face.
Similarly, at a major Victory Day parade in Moscow in May, the 69-year-old appeared to walk with a limp and had a blanket across his lap, while in April he was seen clutching a table during a televised meeting with his defense minister. .
Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russia’s best-selling tabloid, compared Putin to Catherine the Great for annexing parts of southern Ukraine and preventing the country from “falling apart.”
“No state in the 21st century has gotten bigger,” he said.
The comments come after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and Putin’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions last week.
Despite the annexation of regions such as Donetsk and Luhansk, Ukrainian forces have made significant gains in regions that Russia declared would “remain Russian forever” in chilling words for the nation.
Russia reportedly brought forward school holidays this week and plans to ‘evacuate’ Ukrainian schoolchildren to areas of the territory still firmly under Russian control.
It is unclear how they plan to do this and if the children or their families will have any choice in the matter.
Yesterday, on his birthday, The Telegraph reports that Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian dictator, gave Putin a gift certificate for a tractor made in Belarus for his birthday.
The government of Belarus has been very supportive of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Tajikistan’s president hosted a display of melons and watermelons from Central Asia that were stacked on the grounds of the palace where Putin met with leaders of former Soviet states.
