In the middle of the Ukrainian war, Putin gets tractor as birthday present
While Russian President Vladimir Putin turns 70 in the midst of the chaos of his invasion of Ukraine, he received a strange gift: a tractor.
Putin’s Belarus ally, Alexander Lukashenko, presented him with the vehicle. Lukashenko himself confirmed the news after visiting his friend who has ruled Russia for two decades, one way or the other.
Putin held a meeting with the leaders of the former Soviet States to discuss the situation in the regions he annexed but received gifts and praise for protecting Russia’s national interests reported by the BBC.
Lukashenko has been in power longer than Putin, despite his administration also being under western sanctions.
The big-wheeled gift wasn’t the only strange gift Putin got. The president of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon honored the leader with mountains of melons and watermelons.
“I’ll be honest, if someone gave me a tractor and two pyramids of melons for my birthday, I would be delighted”, a Twitter user with the handle “Vladimir” commented.
The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Cyril, applauded Putin for “strengthening the sovereignty of Russia”. Chechnya’s leader named the man “the first patriot in the world”.
On the other hand, Putin was rewarded as a war criminal by his enemies.