SOCIETY

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who marked his 59th birthday on Friday, has caused a Twitter flash mob with a hashtag devoted to his birthday topping the world’s trends.

The hashtag #CпасибоПутинуЗаЭто, which can be translated as “thank Putin for that,” appeared early on Friday, RIA Novosti reported, when the pro-Kremlin United Russia party’s member, Vladimir Burmatov, decided to congratulate the premier with the ironic tweet: “The summer hasn’t left Moscow yet, thank Putin for that.”

“I wanted to make some fun on premier’s birthday,” Burmatov said in an interview with BBC Russian service. “I expected to play this game with my 30-something thousand readers. And it turned to attract broad masses of people.”

“Have uncensored Internet? Thank Putin for that,” Burmatov posted later, causing a wave of similar tweets.

Since almost 50 percent of Russian-speaking Twitterites are Muscovites in their late 20s and early 30s that are known for their staunch criticism of Putin, the birthday hashtag inspired them to stage a poetic flash mob that quickly turned into the marathon of sarcastic verses.

“Russia leaves the souls of poets dead, thank Putin for that,” wrote one of the Twitter users, @IvanBerezov.

“Have no money for the flat, thank Putin for that,” posted @KatiKleine.

"Lack of free food drives us mad, thank Putin for that," one of the journalists in a Russian news agency wrote after the company announced a closure of a so-called “bonus-bar” where the workers could have a free daily snack.

Russian celebrities joined the game with several sharp tweets, reflecting the recent political events in the country.

“Brezhnev has returned from the dead, thank Putin for that,” wrote @galerist, Russian art dealer Marat Gelman, referring to the widely spread claim that Putin’s return to power would cause a long-lasting stagnation, similar to the one during Leonid Brezhnev’s 18-year tenure.

This is not the first occasion that Russian tweets have made the Twitter record books. Earlier this year, colorful actor and writer Ivan Okhlobystin landed in the top Twitter tables when he announced his short-lived presidential bid. His name shot up the Twitter charts to land in 5^th place worldwide. 

The first Russian-language hashtag to trend on Twitter was the word “Дождь,” or “Rain,” which occurred on July 20, 2010, when a heat wave that had been gripping the country was broken by a rainstorm. The appearance of the Cyrillic word caused much confusion, with people outside the Russian-speaking world asking what the word meant, with elicited various humorous responses from quick-witted Russians, such as “дождь is the name of Putin’s new pet,” “дождь is the name of new Russian nuclear bomb,” and “дождь is a time when the vodka falls from the sky and polar bears begin to walk on the red square with AK47.”