Lingerie-clad students from Moscow's most renowned university have posed in an erotic calendar proclaiming their love for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who turns 58 on Thursday.
Lingerie-clad students from Moscow's most renowned university have posed in an erotic calendar proclaiming their love for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who turns 58 on Thursday. (Text: AFP)
The calendar, called "Vladimir Vladimirovich, We love you. Happy Birthday Mr Putin," features twelve women wearing only underwear and pouting at the camera with saucy slogans. (Text: AFP)(Image courtesy: http://krispotupchik.livejournal.com)
The women are all named as journalism students at the Moscow State University and a spokeswoman for the faculty confirmed to AFP that the models study there.
Clad in a black lace negligee, Miss March, Lena Gornostayeva, wishes Putin a happy birthday with the message: "You put out the forest fires, but I'm still burning." (Text: AFP)(Image courtesy: http://krispotupchik.livejournal.com)
Journalism faculty spokeswoman Larisa Bakulina slammed the calendar as a "work of erotic tastelessness." (Text: AFP)(Image courtesy: http://krispotupchik.livejournal.com)
"We are not happy that they used the brand of the journalism faculty," she said. "It is tactless on the part of the publishers." (Text: AFP) (Image courtesy: http://krispotupchik.livejournal.com)
One of the creators of the calendar, Maxim Perlin, 22, a producer at a patriotic Internet televison channel, said that he put it together with a publisher, Vladimir Tabak. (Text: AFP) (Image courtesy: http://krispotupchik.livejournal.com)
The models posed for free, he told AFP, claiming the calendar had an empowering message. (Text: AFP)(Image courtesy: http://krispotupchik.livejournal.com)
"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," he said.
Asked why the models were in underwear, he said: "In my opinion it's more beautiful and more interesting." (Text: AFP) (Image courtesy: http://krispotupchik.livejournal.com)
Fifty thousand copies of the calendar went on sale on Tuesday at Auchan hypermarkets, Perlin told AFP. "We hope it will have some commercial success." (Text: AFP) (Image courtesy: http://krispotupchik.livejournal.com)
On Wednesday a stack of the calendars, costing 260 rubles each (8.71 US dollars) was on sale at a hypermarket on Leninsky Prospekt in southern Moscow. (Text: AFP) (Image courtesy: http://krispotupchik.livejournal.com)
Designer Antonina Shapovalova, a leader of Nashi pro-Kremlin youth movement, in 2008 created a line of girls' thong knickers with the slogan "Vova, I'm with you," using a nickname for Vladimir Putin. (Text: AFP) (Image courtesy: http://krispotupchik.livejournal.com)
Perlin works for a pro-Kremlin channel called Russia.ru. Its creator Konstantin Rykov was behind a website called Zaputina.ru, or For Putin, which pushed for the leader to run for a third presidential term. (Text: AFP)(Image courtesy: http://krispotupchik.livejournal.com)
Perlin denied to AFP that he was a member of United Russia or any pro-Kremlin youth group and said that the calendar was funded from proceeds of publishing projects. (Text: AFP)(Image courtesy: http://krispotupchik.livejournal.com)
"We chose girls from our acquaintances and friends. I am a journalist and my friends are journalists. We know the girls who study there very well. They are 90 percent our friends." (Text: AFP)(Image courtesy: http://krispotupchik.livejournal.com)
