Russian students hit back over Putin girlie calendar

Six female Moscow journalism students have hit back after their classmates posed for a racy calendar in honour of Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin's 58th birthday this week - with a calendar that highlights the country's dismal human rights record.

The retaliatory gift comes a day after 12 of their classmates at Moscow State University's journalism faculty unveiled their saucy 'Happy Birthday Mr President' tribute.

In pictures: Putin's calendar girls

In the first calendar, entitled 'Vladimir Vladimirovich, We Love You! Happy Birthday, Mr Putin!', the 12 women posed in lacy lingerie. Each scantily clad student had a word bubble stretching from her mouth, with phrases like "Can I be your co-pilot?" and "How about a third go?" - referring to the possibility that Putin may return for a third term as president. Miss March, recalling Putin's hands-on approach to the recent devastating wildfires, said: "You put out the fires, but I'm still burning."

But when the calendar was released on Wednesday, many of their fellow students were dismayed and decided to hit back with their own version, which throws the spotlight on the murders and curbs on freedom during Putin's premiership.

One of the most high-profile slayings was that of journalist Anna Politkovskaya - one of the Kremlin's toughest critics and a former Moscow State University journalism student. She was murdered four years ago on Putin's birthday, October 7.

"Who killed Anna Politkovskaya?" asks one of the students posing in the calendar, Yekaterina Ulianova. Like all the young women she was dressed in a sombre black outfit with yellow tape sealing her mouth shut (pictured above).

"When I first saw the [original] calendar, I was absolutely shocked," said Liz Menschikova, one of the students behind the opposition calendar. "Girls from the journalism faculty are just being sold to the Kremlin and that's not right. They teach us to tell the truth and that's what we're doing here."

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was unaware of the second calendar. He said he planned to show the PM online images of the original calendar at his birthday on Thursday night. ·