Putin’s 70th birthday surprise as Lukashenko buys him a tractor

What birthday present do you give the man who gave himself chunks of Ukraine last week?

The answer is a tractor.

On the day Vladimir Putin celebrated his 70th birthday – and the US president warned that the Russian president could drive the world towards “armageddon”, while the Nobel Peace Prize committee made little attempt to disguise its contempt for his woeful human rights record – at least he could rely on his old friend and fellow tyrant Alexander Lukashenko.

The president of Belarus decided to give Putin a piece of agricultural machinery, or at least a gift certificate he can exchange for a tractor, on Friday to celebrate the big day.

The leaders were meeting at the Tsarist-era Konstantin Palace in St Petersburg, Putin’s home city.

Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron fist since 1994, even told reporters he used the same model tractor in his own garden.

Tractors have been the pride of Belarusian industry since Soviet times.

Both men have been used to ploughing their own political furrows, but it was not clear how the Russian leader responded to the gift. The present was only revealed by Lukashenko, a man often described as Europe’s last dictator.

Putin did not mention the gift in televised remarks at the start of the meeting when he talked about the need to discuss ways of settling conflicts between ex-Soviet nations. Putin’s birthday has previously been celebrated in notable ways, including triumphant games of ice hockey and walking trips to Siberia.

Last week, Putin announced that Russia was annexing four regions of Ukraine, despite Moscow’s troops not being in complete control of the areas, and their troops being pushed back by Ukrainian forces in the same regions.

That was described by some supporters as a birthday present for the man who invaded Ukraine in February to give Europe its greatest security problem in decades, though Russian television lamented on Thursday that the Ukraine military pushback was specifically timed to ruin the celebrations for Putin.

Still, there was enough fawning congratulations from other subordinates on Sunday and a plea from Orthodox Patriarch Kirill for all to pray for the health of the president.

The patriarch of Moscow and All Russia implored the country to say two days of special prayers so that God grants Putin “health and longevity”.

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“We pray to you, our Lord God, for the head of the Russian state, Vladimir Vladimirovich, and ask you to give him your rich mercy and generosity, grant him health and longevity, and deliver him from all the resistances of visible and invisible enemies, confirm him in wisdom and spiritual strength, for all, Lord hear and have mercy,” Kirill said.

Also sending their congratulations was Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

“Today, our national leader, one of the most influential and outstanding personalities of our time, the number one patriot in the world, president of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, turns 70 years old,” he said.

“Putin has changed the global position of Russia and forced the world to reckon with the position of our great state.”