More than 800 Russian female internet users have joined Putin’s Army, a group in the popular social network Vkontakte whose organizers claim that they are ready to “kill for Putin.”
The group, the organizers say, intends to prove that “many, including beautiful, young and smart girls” support the Russian prime minister, according to a statement on the group’s webpage.
“We are united in our view of Putin as a worthy and fair politician and a gorgeous man!” the statement, containing a grammar error in Russian, reads.
The organizers of the group, which has a little more than 880 members, say they want Putin, who was Russia’s president for two terms from 2000 to 2008 before Dmitry Medvedev took office, to return to the presidential post. Putin and Medvedev have said that one of them, but not both, would run in presidential elections scheduled for 2012.
Putin’s Army has announced a contest, asking the prime minister’s female fans to shoot videos in which they would prove their love to Putin by “killing something or someone.” The winner of the contest is promised an iPad 2.
In a video invitation for the contest, a girl who introduces herself as a student called Diana, says she has “lost her mind because of the man who has changed our country’s life.”
“Millions adore him, they believe him,” the girl in the video claims. “But there is a small group of people who throw mud at him. Maybe because they are afraid of him, maybe because of their weakness, because they will never be in his place.” At the end of the video, the girl rips off her shirt in proof of her devotion to Putin.
Another video featuring a group of girls singing a song in which they admit their love to Russia’s prime minister has been posted on YouTube.
“During the ten and half years that you have been ruling the country… I have been following you,” the song, in which one of the girls smashes a pumpkin with a baseball bat, says.
Critics of the initiative have created their own internet group, entitled “Anti-Putin’s Army,” which currently has only some 70 members.