News programs made only glancing references to the birthday on Friday and public events were low-key - in contrast with just a week ago when Putin held a huge concert on Red Square to proclaim the annexation of nearly a fifth of Ukrainian land.
On the world stage, in a clear repudiation of Putin's record, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Russia's most prominent human rights group, Memorial, which Moscow shut down at the end of 2021.
A Ukrainian human rights group and a jailed campaigner against abuses by the pro-Russian government in Belarus also shared the award.
Ukrainian authorities found a mass grave containing 180 bodies in the eastern town of Lyman, recently retaken from Russian forces, according to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko and police. Reuters could not confirm the account independently.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine, launched on February 24, has killed thousands, displaced millions, pulverised cities and damaged the global economy.
But Moscow has faced a series of setbacks since abandoning an early advance on the capital Kyiv. Ukrainian forces have advanced swiftly since breaking through the Russian front in the northeast at the start of September, and in the south this week.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video address his forces had liberated 2434 square kilometres and 96 settlements in the east of the country in their latest offensive.
Reports of Russia's failures on the battlefield have brought unusual public recrimination from Kremlin allies and regular reshuffles in the top brass.
Russian news site RBC said on Friday Moscow had sacked the commander of its Eastern Military District. It did not give details on reasons.
A day earlier, one Russian-installed leader in occupied Ukrainian territory went as far as suggesting Putin's defence minister should have shot himself.
Late on Thursday, US President Joe Biden said the prospect of defeat could make Putin desperate enough to use nuclear weapons, the biggest risk since 1962's Cuban Missile Crisis during the Cold War.
"We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since (President John F) Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis," Biden said in New York.
The White House said it had no new intelligence on Russia's nuclear threats, and Biden's comments were meant to underline how seriously he took the situation.
The Nobel Peace Prize for Memorial, the rights group shut down in Russia as illegal "foreign agents" last December, was the most open rebuke of Moscow's record by the prize committee since it honoured Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov in 1975.
Sakharov had been named Memorial's first chairman shortly before his death in 1989.
Memorial shared the award with jailed Belarusian activist Ales Byalyatski and Ukraine's Center for Civil Liberties. Committee chair Berit Reiss-Andersen denied the decision was a statement against Putin.
The Russian group, now operating in exile, said the award recognised its colleagues who continue to suffer "unspeakable attacks and reprisals" in Russia.
In Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council voted to appoint an independent expert on human rights abuse allegations in Russia.
Russia said it showed the West was using the United Nations for political ends.
Also on Friday, Russia declared one of the country's most popular rappers to be a "foreign agent".
Oxxxymiron, whose real name is Miron Fyodorov, had cancelled a Russian tour in protest at the invasion of Ukraine.
He subsequently left Russia and gave a series of concerts in Turkey, Britain and Germany titled "Russians Against The War".
Putin was shown on state television meeting leaders of other former Soviet allies in St Petersburg on Friday, but commentators mentioned his birthday only in passing.
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, a vocal supporter of the war, and Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya, led the birthday tributes.
The International Monetary Fund's executive board on Friday approved Ukraine's request for $US1.3 billion ($A2 billion) in additional emergency funding to help the country sustain its economy.
