Russian President Vladimir Putin got an unusual gift for his 70th birthday on Friday: a tractor. As the leaders of several ex-Soviet nations met at the Czarist-era Konstantin Palace in St. Petersburg, President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus presented Putin with a gift certificate for the vehicle. Tractors have been the pride of Belarusian industry since Soviet times.
Lukashenko, an autocratic leader who has ruled the ex-Soviet nation with an iron hand for nearly three decades while cultivating a man of the people image, told reporters he used a model in his garden similar to the one he gifted Putin. It wasn’t clear how the Russian leader responded to the gift, which Lukashenko’s office revealed.
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Putin didn’t 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. He also emphasized the need to exchange information to fight terrorism, illegal drugs and other crime.
The leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose alliance of ex-Soviet nations, have another gathering to attend next week in Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana.
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