Putin cult touches new high

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, MAY 8. A year after Mr. Vladimir Putin was sworn in Russia's President, adulation for the new leader is increasingly taking the shape of a new personality cult unseen in Russia since the gory days of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

Thousands of students on Monday marked the first anniversary of Mr. Putin's presidency with a show of support at the foot of the Kremlin wall in Moscow reminiscent of Soviet-era demonstrations by the Communist party's youth organisation, the Komsomol.

A crowd of an estimated 10,000 young people brought to Moscow from all over Russia marched through downtown Moscow to Red Square wearing T-shirts with Mr. Putin's portrait and chanting, ``Putin, Putin''.

The rally was organised by the pro- Kremlin youth group Idushchiye Vmeste, or Moving Together, headed by Mr. Vasily Yakimenko, a former member of Mr. Putin's Kremlin staff.

The colourful show was the latest outpouring of public love for the Russian leader assiduously cultivated by political loyalists and Government bureaucrats, who draw inspiration from the rich Russian tradition of singing praises to the man in the Kremlin.

A new ABC book brought out by a local branch of the pro-Kremlin Yedinsvo (Unity) Party in Mr. Putin's home city of St. Petersburg tells first-year school children about the young years of Vova Putin, in much the same way as Soviet-time children's books used to recount the story of the young Vova Ulyanov (Lenin).

Party functionaries in St. Petersburg have also put in the market a new game called ``President the Patriot'' in which a President's joker helps red-coloured patriots defeat white- coloured enemies.

It seems sky is the limit for Mr. Putin's adorers. A tattoo portrait of the Russian leader won a special prize for patriotism at a contest in St. Petersburg. In Siberia, farmers called for their collective farm to be named after Mr. Putin, while in Krasnodar region, an Orthodox priest is building a Putin temple.

In Chelyabinsk, Siberia, a local handicrafts factory manufactured a pocket watch bearing Mr. Putin's portrait on its face.

Colour photographs of Mr. Putin are available in all sizes at stationary shops across the country: it is practically a must for Government officials to have the President's portrait on the desk or on the wall, or both.

Mr. Putin has not commented, at least not in public, on his growing personality cult, but his silence is enough encouragement to loyalists.

Their latest project is a 25-cm bronze likeness of the leader to grace the desks of his devotees. A plaster model of the sculpture is ready and Yedinstvo functionaries in St. Petersburg are looking for sponsors to fund mass production.

If the project is carried to fruition, Mr. Putin will be the first Russian leader after Stalin to have his bust cast in bronze during his lifetime.

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Section  : International
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