Andy Potts and Anna Arutunyan

Vladimir Putin may take a dim view of personality cult-like media coverage of his birthday, yet despite the prime minister's "business as usual" approach his 57th - celebrated on 7th October - still made the headlines.

Whether it was Russia's intelligentsia debating whether or not writers should attend a "meet-and-greet" with Putin, or Nezavisimaya Gazeta publishing a tongue-in-cheek "Ode" to the premier, there was little hope of the day passing off quietly.

The working day involved a small lunch with writers and cultural commentators - an invitation-only event eventually rescheduled for Putin's birthday, after having been put off a few times this year.

But the seemingly innocuous meeting suddenly gained political significance when three writers declined the invitation.

Much was made of the refusal in the Russian media, but one refusenik, writer and talk show host Dmitry Bykov, said there was nothing political behind his no-show.

"This wasn't a political decision, but an aesthetic one. If this was going to be a serious discussion, it shouldn't have taken place on a symbolic day. This is no protest. Everything I would have liked to say [to Putin] I can say freely in the press." 

Bykov said he just didn't want to say it to Putin on his birthday.

Literary critic and RIA Novosti commentator Alexander Arkhangelsky, meanwhile, explained in his blog why he decided to accept the invitation.

During the lunch, Arkhangelsky asked two pointed questions - one about an amnesty for Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and the other about why the pro-Kremlin Nashi youth group was harassing Alexander Podrabinek, a journalist and Soviet-era dissident who protested against the forced change of name for the Anti-Sovietskaya kebab restaurant.

As a result, Putin issued an unexpected signal to the youth group.

"I heard about the insulting article [by Podrabinek], but I didn't know what happened afterwards. I don't like all this, if you want to know," Arkhangelsky reported Putin as saying.

Arkhangelsky said he also asked, "Why doesn't the government want to pardon people involved in the Khorokovsky trial?"

Putin answered, "The case is not only economic, there is a trail of murders behind him, he has left a trail of blood. Nevertheless, a pardon is open for anyone, including those involved in serious crimes."

The condition was a request to be pardoned and an admission of guilt, Arkhangelsky reported Putin as saying.

Arkhangelsky, who was criticised for attending by some more oppositionist members of the intelligentsia, said the rare exchange of ideas reflected an old-fashioned way of getting things done in the country.

"It is archaic in the sense that the [leader] has to personally intervene, and if he doesn't, then nothing gets solved," Arkhangelsky told The Moscow News in an interview after the meeting. "And what's really terrible is that we can't just get rid of this, because then we wouldn't have any communication with the government whatsoever. I wish that normal political mechanisms worked - free elections, independent institutions, lobbyism - including for writers and publishers. But because any channel of communication besides direct communication doesn't exist, we have to do what we have to do."

As usual, Putin's birthday was widely covered in the media, a fact that the premier was not comfortable with, said his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.

Putin views media coverage of his birthday "negatively" and prefers not to mark the event publicly, Peskov said.

"It's a normal working day for him. Maybe in the evening, he might celebrate it with his family," Peskov said in a telephone interview.

Not everyone followed the "business as usual" line, though. Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, who has enjoyed Putin's strong support as he has asserted control over the troubled republic, delivered a speech at a horse-racing event in Gudermes.

"The only thing missing for Putin is that he's not a Chechen," Kadyrov told crowds at the racecourse. "He has every other good quality."

Meanwhile, poet Yegeny Lesin's front-page ditty on Putin's 57th birthday for Nezavisimaya Gazeta was a touch more ironic.

Recalling the odes in praise of Soviet-era Communist leaders, he lavished over-the-top plaudits on the birthday boy and urged God to grant "Comrade Putin ... another 120 years".

Parodying a classic poem by Alexander Pushkin, Lesin wrote:

"I loved you so tenderly, so truly,

As, God permit, you may be loved by your country."

While Kadyrov was keen to publicly dedicate his horserace to Putin, details of other presents were not made known - though Peskov confirmed that US President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Barack Obama had not sent a gift.

In past years, some details of Putin's presents have been released - mostly involving animals given by fellow leaders, including racehorses, a Siberian tiger cub and a crocodile donated by then-Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin.