JULY 2011

Putin sent to Russia by God: Kremlin aide

By Alexei Nikolsky | AFP

8.7.2011

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (R) chairs a meeting on the situation in

oil refining in Kirishi, near St.Petersburg. Putin was sent to Russia by God to

help it deal with its troubles in the early post-Soviet era, the Kremlin’s top

political adviser was quoted as saying

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (R) chairs a meeting on the situation in

oil …

Vladimir Putin was sent to Russia by God to help it deal with its troubles in

the early post-Soviet era, the Kremlin’s top political adviser was quoted as

saying on Friday.

"To be honest, I think of Putin as a person who was sent to Russia by fate and

the Almighty at a difficult hour,” Interfax quoted first deputy administration

chief Vladislav Surkov as telling Chechen television.

Surkov serves in the administration of President Dmitry Medvedev. But he has

worked there since just before Putin first entered the Kremlin for a two-year

term as president in 2000 and is widely seen as one of his closest allies.

Putin now serves as prime minister and neither he nor Medvedev have said which

of them will run in presidential elections scheduled for March.

But Putin has remained the country’s most popular politician and has been forced

to deal with at times peculiar signs of appreciations from his fans and

political supporters.

The Russian media in May reported that a small female sect believes Putin is the

reincarnation of Paul the Apostle.

Putin has been made the hero of pop songs and brands of vodka and even a Moscow

night club party.