Special to WorldTribune.com

Vladimir Putin’s cult of personality has reached Iraq. Some of the nation’s Facebook users have even replaced their own profile photos with portraits of “Putin the Shi’ite.”

“We should give Putin Iraqi and Syrian citizenship because he loves us more than our own politicians,” said Mohammed al-Bahadli, a student in the Iraqi city of Najaf.

Ali al-Rammahi, a taxi driver, said the Russian president is the only reason he hasn’t fled to Europe.

“I thank Putin because he convinced me to stay in Iraq… Hajji Putin is better than Hussein Obama,” al-Rammahi said, using the title given to Muslims who have performed the pilgrimage to Mecca.

With his quick military escalation in Syria, including air strikes and missile strikes from warships, Iraqis are looking to Putin to take up the slack for what they say is an ineffective U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL).

“I have been waiting for Russia to get involved in the fight against Daesh (ISIL),” Baghdad painter Karim Nihaya said. “They get results. The United States and its allies on the other hand have been bombing for a year and achieved nothing.”

Iraqis also showed little concern that, as observers say, most of Russia’s air strikes in Syria did not target ISIL.

“We don’t want the international coalition, we want only Russia and we will slaughter a sheep to welcome them,” one young Iraqi in Baghdad said.

“Muslims bomb us because we are Rafidha,” says Saad Abdullah, who owns a convenience store in Najaf. “Rafidha” is a term that means “rejectionists” which is used by ISIL jihadists to refer to Shi’ites.

“Meanwhile Putin, who is an Orthodox man, is defending us… Maybe he really is a Shi’ite and we didn’t know about it.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is supported by the West, has not requested Putin’s help in Iraq, but also has not ruled it out.

  Hajji Putin, ISIL, Putinmania: Popularity of ‘Putin the Shi’ite’ skyrockets in Iraq, U.S.-led coalition, WorldTribune.com