Putin is king of the ice on his birthday

In Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, where the Kremlin fought two wars against separatists over the past 20 years, Russian and Italian footballers played a match in Putin’s honour. The opposing team featured officials and notable Russian businessmen including Gennady Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg and his brother Arkady Rotenberg.

It wound up with Mr Putin holding aloft a big trophy.

So it’s only fair that the Russian president took a moment to enjoy his birthday on Wednesday, with activities that – incidentally, we’re sure – offered plenty of photo ops.

Earlier Wednesday Putin was debriefed by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu about the Russian air force operation in Syria.

I love watching the charade of Putin scoring endless goals in these hockey games, and the pageantry of everyone on the ice dumbing their skills down temporarily to an infantile level.

The game was broadcast live on national television as the highlight of a day of adoring homages to the Russian leader.

Putin and Modi both bring in a macho-man image to their to personality.

At the game, Putin spoke of the advantages of staying fit and playing sports, telling the crowd, “Whoever moves and goes toward victory will find it!” In his opening remark, he addressed everyone as “Friends!” “My best friend is back in the game”.

The video shows Timati performing in front of the Kremlin, surrounded by black-clad skateboarders with Putin masks.

When he’s not too busy leading one of the most powerful nations in the world, the mercurial Vladimir Putin is known for spending his free time in a variety of different ways.

Putin still managed to celebrate his birthday despite him announcing that their warships have joined Syria to target ISIL in the country using 26 rockets, as per Aljazeera.

In Moscow, Mr Putin’s social media fan club held an exhibition of portraits of Mr Putin as various real and fictional characters, including Che Guevara, Father Christmas, Jupiter and Buddha.

Artists displayed their creations of the president in the “Putin Universe” exhibit in Moscow. You throw yourself a birthday party that would make any 7-year-old boy sob with jealousy.