The Russian President celebrates his 72nd birthday today. Some hardliners send pithy congratulations.
“God save the Tsar!” With these words, the ultranationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin on his 72nd birthday on Monday. The congratulations, which Dugin published a few minutes after midnight on the short message service Telegram, reflect the adoration that Putin enjoys among parts of the Russian population.
The 62-year-old Dugin is considered an ardent supporter of a new Russian empire that would include Ukraine in addition to the Russian-speaking regions. Putin has been Russian president for almost 25 years.
Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Russian republic of Chechnya and Putin’s self-proclaimed “foot soldier”, also congratulated the president on Telegram. “Today is the birthday of our national leader,” Kadyrov wrote at midnight. “This is a great day for our entire fatherland.”
Putin won a landslide victory unprecedented since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the March 2022 elections, a few weeks after the start of the war in Ukraine. His new six-year term, if he completes it, would make him the longest-serving Russian head of state in over 200 years.
