Putin's gifts to his allies sees him compared to 'Sauron'

Russian leader Vladimir Putin gifted his closest allies each a gold ring and people have hilariously compared him with The Lord of the Rings villain Sauron.

Putin had a series of nine rings made, eight of which were gifted to the leaders of Russian-allied, post-Soviet countries, including Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus who was pictured wearing the gift. The ninth ring, Putin kept for himself.

According to reports, the golden rings were gifted at a summit that took place in St Petersburg on Monday and Tuesday and featured an emblem of the Commonwealth of Independent States and had the words “Russia” and “Happy New Year 2023” engraved.

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It wasn’t long before hilarious comparisons with the fantasy trilogy character Sauron were drawn, as J.R.R. Tolkien’s evil power-hungry villain also gifted rings to nine kings in order to wield control over them.

Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko tweeted: “Putin got tired of being the Hitler of the 21st century and decided to play Lord of the Rings and become a ‘mighty Sauron’.

“He presented the participants of the informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States with rings with the symbol of the ‘commonwealth’.”

Someone else tweeted, “A𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚.” Another wrote: “So I see Putin has entered the Sauron phase of governing.”

One Twitter user said: “Sauron and his Nazgûl. For a guy who doesn't like Russia being compared to Mordor, Putin certainly seems to be going out of his way to make such comparisons easy.”

Yulia Latynina, a political commentator, called them the “rings of powerlessness”.

She continued: “Every state whose ruler puts on this ring will turn into darkness ruled by a madman. I think Putin will wear the ring alone. And not for long.”

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