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Gifts and Gerhard on Putin's Birthday

Schroder and Putin smiling Friday evening at the Konstantinovsky Palace. Unknown
President Vladimir Putin received a double-barreled shotgun from German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, a book about virgin soil from a fire-extinguishing farm worker and a heavy dose of sarcasm from Russia's most famous prisoner as he celebrated his 53rd birthday on Friday.

The best present of all, Putin said, was the German chancellor's arrival in St. Petersburg for the occasion. Schröder's visit came as talks over who will lead Germany's government drag on, and could well be his final foreign trip as his country's leader.

Putin spent his birthday in St. Petersburg meeting with the leaders of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan at a summit of the Central Asian Cooperation Organization, as well as handing out medals of honor and talking shop with Schröder, whom he said he hoped to see again soon.

In Moscow, meanwhile, jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky passed on ironic birthday greetings to Putin via the pages of Friday's Kommersant, and police broke up a small anti-Putin demonstration on Pushkin Square on Friday evening after protesters donned Putin masks and prisoners' caps and called for the president's ouster.

Putin and Schröder met Friday during the German chancellor's two-day private visit, the two leaders' eighth meeting this year. Putin was the guest of honor at Schröder's 60th birthday last year, and the two leaders' cozy relationship was on display again Friday.

"For me the best gift is that Mr. Federal Chancellor came to visit me," Putin said at a news conference Friday evening, RIA-Novosti reported.

Schröder was pressed, to no avail, by journalists to reveal what gift he had brought for Putin.

"I can't tell you about the present before I give it to him," Schröder said, RIA-Novosti reported. "I can only say that it is related to the president's interests and to Germany."

A Kremlin spokesman said Schröder had given Putin a double-barreled shotgun, Regnum.ru reported Saturday. It was unclear in exactly what respect the gun was related to Germany.

Earlier Friday, Putin said that his best birthday present was an agreement to merge CACO with the Eurasian Economic Community, one of several overlapping regional organizations comprising former Soviet states -- in the case of the EEC, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

"I consider the decision of my colleagues and friends to be the best birthday present," Putin said in televised comments Friday, hours before Schröder's visit bumped the merger from the top of Putin's birthday wish list.

Earlier in the day, Putin presented Hero of Russia awards to actor Kirill Lavrov and Vyacheslav Chernukha, a farm mechanic from the Orenburg region who last year extinguished a fire that threatened to destroy $50,000 worth of grain.


Igor Tabakov / MT

Two men in Putin masks at Friday evening's small rally on Pushkin Square

"Despite strong gusts of wind and acrid smoke, he rushed to save the seed grain," a handout to journalists said of Chernukha, Moskovsky Komsomolets reported.

Chernukha presented Putin with a book titled "The Planet of Virgin Soil," and Putin invited the mechanic to have breakfast with the leaders attending the summit.

While Schröder's visit was unofficial, he and Putin did address bilateral cooperation in their news conference, and Putin even commented on Schröder's tenuous hold on power after his narrow defeat in last month's German parliamentary elections.

"We all know how complicated the internal political events in Germany are becoming," Putin said. "Nevertheless, you have found time to come here."

Putin added that he would like high-level contacts between the two governments to "remain undisrupted, despite internal political events."

Schröder said that cooperation would continue should his conservative rival, Angela Merkel, assume the chancellorship, and he was optimistic that his Social Democrats would soon strike a deal with Merkel's Christian Democrats.

"Everyone is deeply convinced of the great strategic importance of the development of relations between Russia and Germany, Russia and Europe," Schröder said. "The likelihood that the two big parties will form a grand coalition is great."

Asked when he would like to see Schröder again, Putin said, "Soon," RIA-Novosti reported.

Khodorkovsky used the same word in expressing his desire to see Putin, though it was unclear on which side of the Matrosskaya Tishina walls the jailed oligarch meant in his wry birthday note to Putin published in Kommersant on Friday.

"We'll see each other soon, God willing," Khodorkovsky wrote. "Happy birthday!"

Khodorkovsky heaped biting, sarcastic praise on Putin, noting, "Unfortunately, for reasons that you well know, I don't have an opportunity to congratulate you in person."

Khodorkovsky also took an apparent jab at the difference between his own fate and that of billionaire Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea Football Club, who is thought to be a loyal ally of the Kremlin.

"You are a generous person, and you clearly like football," Khodorkovsky wrote to Putin.

Posters of Khodorkovsky were on prominent display at a small anti-Putin rally near Pushkin Square on Friday evening that was cut short by police.

Decked out in plastic Putin masks and striped prisoners' caps, about 30 demonstrators showed up for the rally, which was organized by the Garry Kasparov-led United Civil Front and the youth group My, or We.

The demonstration began around 6:30 p.m. on Pushkin Square and was set to last until 9 p.m., with demonstrators singing "Happy Birthday" and chanting slogans such as "One, two, three -- Putin, leave!" and "Down with KGBers!" They also collected at least 50 birthday wishes from passers-by on a large postcard, which has been sent to the presidential administration, said Igor Drandin, one of the organizers from My.

Police broke up the rally at around 8 p.m., Drandin said, claiming that the demonstration had been sanctioned as a small rally, a classification under which chanting slogans is not permitted.

"What we were doing was completely legal," Drandin said.

Drandin said he was taken to the Tverskoye police precinct and was now facing a possible fine or even a short stint in jail.

"I didn't resist at all, so I don't think I'll spend any time in jail," Drandin said Sunday.

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