Calendar girls take a stand on Putin at 58
Some were bearing gifts for Vladimir Putin's 58th birthday yesterday - others bared their flesh.
Several female journalism students from a prestigious Russian university posed in lingerie for a calendar filled with provocative birthday greetings for Russia's prime minister.
But the present drew a strong reaction from other journalism students also at Moscow State University.
The calendar images were splashed across Moscow's tabloids, with each month illustrated by a young woman bearing a message for Mr Putin. "Vladimir Vladimirovich, WE LOVE YOU!" read the cover while the March model, in a bad taste reference to the wildfires that killed more than 50 Russian during the summer says: "The fires are out, but I'm still burning."
However, in protest other journalism students from the same school posted a calendar with photos depicting them in dark clothing, their mouths taped, with captions asking questions about issues Mr Putin has failed to address.
"Who killed Anna Politkovskaya?" one asks - a reference to the unsolved killing, on Mr Putin's birthday in 2006, of an investigative journalist who exposed human rights abuses.
"When will (Mikhail) Khodorkovsky be freed?" asks another about an imprisoned oil tycoon whose fraud and tax evasion trial was seen by Kremlin critics as a punishment for challenging Mr Putin.
