The parliament of Chechnya unanimously approved on Thursday changing the title of the Russian republic's leader from "president" to "head."
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov proposed the change last month and on August 12 he called on the presidents of all of Russia's North Caucasus republics to petition the lower house of the federal parliament, the State Duma, to change their titles.
Kadyrov said there should be only one president in Russia and regional heads should have different titles. The vast majority of regional leaders are known as governors, but most of Russia's 21 republics have presidents.
Kadyrov told the Chechen parliament that the idea of changing the title was his own initiative.
"Nobody had told me about it and nobody had suggested doing so. I was considering this measure would do good to the state we live in," he said before the vote.
Kadyrov said the idea came to him when he visited to Syria and Turkey as a member of a delegation headed by the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
"I was not pleased to hear that after the presenting the states' presidents, there came the members of the delegations with a number of titles like 'President of Chechnya,' 'President of Kabardino-Balkaria,' and so on. And then I realized there should be only one president in the country," Kadyrov said.
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the president of neighboring Ingushetia, has now also voiced his intention to change his title to "head."
GROZNY, September 2 (RIA Novosti)
