A rock band made up of Russian former paratroopers has scored a surprise hit with a song that labels Vladimir Putin a "tyrant", registering half a million hits on YouTube.

Beefy, tattooed, wearing berets and military decorations on their chests, two singers and three back-up musicians let rip at Putin, the prime minister who is seeking to return to the presidency in March 4 elections.

"You've destroyed the military, the army is broken and you've spat on the soldiers and sent the officers packing," they sing.

"We're asking you nicely: Go, tyrant!"

Belting out the chorus, they sing: "We are free paratroopers and the Motherland is with us! You're just a public servant, not a tsar or God."

By Sunday the video had been watched 445,000 times since being posted on www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2aVlR_Oe3v0 on Thursday.

It has also been watched 150,000 times on the Dojd television station's posting at www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV-prXX1ZOw&feature=related.

One of the singers, asked by a journalist why he opposes the former KGB agent Putin, said that he does not support his corrupt regime.

"We are like all the people, we don't want to live in a country where one flies around and one lies," he said, explaining the song.

Its title "Nobody but us!" is the motto of Russia's paratroopers.

The paratroopers, an elite airborne military force with about 30,000 members, have had a reputation since Soviet times of being fearsome fighters.

Putin, a former agent with Soviet-era KGB intelligence service and a black belt Judoka, has for years cultivated a macho image.