My favorite stencil

I saw and photographed a lot of stencils up in St. Petersburg last month, but this one would have to be my favorite. You can just feel the artist's love for President Putin. The, uh, imagery seems so simple and inspired that it's hard to believe no one has thought of this one before. On the other hand, St. Petersburg is the capital of Russia in terms of artistic creativity, and so perhaps I should not doubt that a native of the city would be able to come up with something like this.

Or maybe [activate frantic, paranoid conspiracy threorist voice] this stencil was designed by a CIA-front NGO which is working tirelessly to bring an "orange revolution" to Russia [end paranoia].

Anyway, I wouldn't exactly say this stencil was all over the President's hometown, but I did see it in at least several places (I didn't photograph them all, though), including most prominently on Nevsky Prospekt (above right), the city's main drag.

They love you in Piter, Vladimir Vladimirovich!

At left is a closer look at the artistry, photographed on Liteiny or Vosstaniia, I can't remember where exactly.