GROZNY, Russia -- Lawmakers in the Russian region of Chechnya have approved a bill on changing the Chechen version of the official title of the region's authoritarian leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, into what can be translated as "father of the people."
The Chechen parliament approved the constitutional amendments on February 9, according to which, the title of the republic's leader will remain as "glava" (head) in Russian, but in Chechen will now be "mekhk-da," which is literally translated as "father of the land," but is generally used to mean "father of the people."
A group of Chechen lawmakers initiated the move in January, weeks after lawmakers in Russia's Tatarstan region approved a bill changing the title of Tatarstan's leader from president to glava in Russian and "rais" in Tatar, which still translates to president or chairman. Leaders of several Arab countries are officially called rais.
SEE ALSO: Tatarstan's Leader To Officially Lose Title Of President Sooner Than ExpectedShortly before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, leaders of ethnic republics within the Russian Federation used to be called presidents.
It was Kadyrov, who, in 2010, initiated the change of the titles of ethnic republic leaders from presidents to heads, saying that "there can be only one president in Russia."
The only ethnic region that managed to preserve its leader's title as president until last week was Tatarstan.
Kadyrov, who has ruled the southern Russian region since he was installed by President Vladimir Putin in 2007, has built the war-ravaged region in the North Caucasus into his own personal fiefdom, cemented by Kremlin budget funds and revenues from local oil and gas reserves.
Under Kadyrov's watch, dissidents, opposition activists, or veterans of Chechnya's wars who have fled to Europe have also been targeted for assassination.