Putin turns 72, Italy hangs billboards and banners to congratulate Russian President

Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrates his 72nd birthday on October 7. The politician is expected to spend the day working.

The head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov was one of the first to congratulate the Russian leader. He wished him good health, prosperity, happiness, long life, good luck and success in his difficult work.

As the press secretary of the Russian leader Dmitry Peskov said, Putin will spend his birthday working.

"There will be nothing particularly festive," Peskov said.

In the first half of the day, Putin will have work meetings. In the evening, the president will also meet with heads of the CIS countries.

Billboards and leaflets congratulating Putin on his birthday appear in Italy

It was reported that banners and leaflets congratulating Vladimir Putin on his birthday appeared on the streets in several Italian cities.

One of the banners was installed on a bridge in the center of Turin. It took the designers a whole evening to make the banner that measured four meters long and two meters wide.

The banner depicting two Russian flags reads: "Turin congratulates Russian President V. Putin on his birthday."

Leaflets congratulating Vladimir Putin on his birthday were also seen on the streets of Genoa, journalist Vincenzo Lorusso, the founder of Donbass Italy Telegram channel said.

The initiative to distribute leaflets saying "Happy Birthday, President" in Genoa, Italy, belongs to the socio-political association Contronarrazione and Lorusso. About a hundred of such leaflets were distributed in Genoa.

In September, billboards with pro-Russian slogans and calls for peace appeared in several Italian cities, including Rome, Parma, Verona, Modena and Pisa.

"Enough with money for weapons for Ukraine and Israel. We want peace. We reject war," the billboards said.

Other posters depicted a handshake painted in the colors of Russian and Italian flags with the slogan: "Russia is not our enemy."

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Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who is the president of Russia. Putin has held continuous positions as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime minister from 1999 to 2000 and from 2008 to 2012, and as president from 2000 to 2008 and since 2012. He is the longest-serving Russian or Soviet leader since Joseph Stalin. Putin worked as a KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel before resigning in 1991 to begin a political career in Saint Petersburg. In 1996, he moved to Moscow to join the administration of President Boris Yeltsin. He briefly served as the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and then as secretary of the Security Council of Russia before being appointed prime minister in August 1999. Following Yeltsin's resignation, Putin became acting president and, in less than four months, was elected to his first term as president. He was reelected in 2004. Due to constitutional limitations of two consecutive presidential terms, Putin served as prime minister again from 2008 to 2012 under Dmitry Medvedev. He returned to the presidency in 2012, following an election marked by allegations of fraud and protests, and was reelected in 2018.