The head of the Russian North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, is sure the presidents of other republics will follow his example and change their titles, leaving only one president in Russia.
The Chechen parliament voted unanimously on Thursday to change the title of the republic's chief executive from "president" to "head."
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.
"I talked with all the leaders of North Caucasus republics and all of them support this initiative, saying 'yes, it should be exactly like this, there should be only one president in the country,'" Kadyrov said, adding that the republic of Tatarstan also backed the move.
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.
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)
