The story now in Moscow is about two groups of journalism students making calendars for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin aimed at his 58th birthday. The first posed in saucy lingerie, the second has hit back with a hardhitting realistic one.
The first calendar, called "Vladimir Vladimirovich, We love you. Happy Birthday Mr Putin," featured 12 journalism students of Moscow State University (MGU). The 259-ruble ($8.73) calendar, which hit the markets on Tuesday, came with captions like “You put out the forest fires, but I’m still burning,” and “You only get better with the years,” according to Bloomberg News.
One of the creators of the calendar, Maxim Perlin, a producer at a patriotic Internet televison channel, told news agency Agence-France Presse (AFP), The idea of the calendar was to show girls who are not simply models who turn up for 100 dollars, but girls who have some political opinion, who have already achieved some success." The calendar has a print run of 50,000.
Journalism faculty spokesperson Larisa Bakulina described the calendar as a "work of erotic tastelessness." She said, "We are not happy that they used the brand of the journalism faculty. It is tactless on the part of the publishers." All the 12 women were named as journalism students at the Moscow State University.
The press secretary at MGU, Larisa Bakulina, told Russian Newsweek, "This was done by the students' own initiative. [...] The dean doesn't know about this." Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Bloomberg, “The girls look nice, I hope they’re also good students."
A group of fellow journalism students quickly created their own online calendar with pictures of themselves with their mouths plastered over to protest Putin's policies, according to Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). This one titled "Vladimir Vladimirovich, We Have A Few Questions..." shows female journalism students with their mouths covered with two strips of yellow tape. The questions range from "How will inflation affect bribes?" and "When will Khodorkovsky be freed?" to "Who killed Anna Politkovskaya?"
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) ranks Russia as the eighth most dangerous country for reporters in terms of the impunity of their killers.
