President Vladimir Putin was hailed as a “tsar” on his 72nd birthday Monday by some supporters who said the former KGB spy had lifted Russia off its knees and would achieve victory against the West in the war since ‘Ukraine.
Putin, who took over the Kremlin’s top job just eight years after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, is the longest-serving Kremlin leader since Josef Stalin, who died at his dacha outside Moscow in 1953 at the age of 74 .
Considered by Western leaders to be an autocrat, a murderer and a war criminal, Putin has seen his popularity in Russia grow since he ordered thousands of troops to be sent to Ukraine in February 2022, according to Russian opinion polls.
“God save the Tsar!” wrote the ultranationalist Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin, who has long advocated the unification of the Russian-speaking and other territories into a vast new Russian empire that he says would include Ukraine .
“Putin governs the country with confidence and without haste. And it will always be like this… well, almost”, added Dugin, in his birthday message, published on his Telegram messaging channel a few minutes after midnight.
Unlike most historic Russian leaders, Putin has no visible successor. Moreover, according to several Russian sources, he has no serious opponents.
Source: Terra
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