Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is celebrating his 70th birthday this Friday, received an unusual gift – a tractor from his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko.
On the sidelines of a meeting of the leaders of several post-Soviet states gathered in the Tsar’s Konstantinovsky Palace in St. Petersburg, Belarusian Alexander Lukashenko handed Putin a “voucher” for a car.
Tractors have been the pride of the Belarusian industry since Soviet times.
Lukashenko, the autocratic leader who ruled the former Soviet country with an iron fist for almost three decades, is keen to cultivate an image of a man of the people.
The Belarusian leader told reporters that he had chosen a model similar to the one in his garden as a gift to Putin.
“It is called Belarus. He’s the best. It was collected privately,” said Lukashenko, who ran an agricultural cooperative in the 1980s before starting his political career.
It is not yet clear how the head of the Russian state reacted to the gift, which was announced by Lukashenka’s office.
In Serbia today appeared electronic displays with a photo of Putin and the message: “Happy birthday to the President of the Serbian brothers Vladimir Putin!”
The message is signed by a pro-Russian right-wing group and the Russian head of state remains popular in Serbia despite the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as many Serbs believe the Russian president was provoked by the West.
Four years ago, the Belarusian president gave Putin four sacks of potatoes from his garden for the New Year and Christmas holidays.
In 2019, then Moldovan President Igor Dodon presented Putin with four barrels of his homemade wine.
That same year, then-President of Kyrgyzstan Sooronbai Jeenbekov presented the Russian leader with the Russian trotting horse Orlov and the Kyrgyz greyhound, also known as the taigan.
As Prime Minister of Russia (2008-2012), Putin once received an Amur tiger on the occasion of his birthday.
Vladimir Putin did not mention Lukashenka’s gift in his televised address at the beginning of the meeting, when he spoke of the need to discuss ways to resolve conflicts between post-Soviet states.
The Russian ruler also stressed the need to exchange information to fight terrorism, drug trafficking and other crimes.
Leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a fragile alliance of former Soviet republics, will join next week’s meeting in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana.
