Putin to be called Russia's 'ruler' instead of 'President'; proposal reaches Parliament

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is facing the West’s scrutiny for initiating the Russia-Ukraine war, is being suggested to be called a “ruler” rather than “President” by a pro-Kremlin party. In a move that would allow Putin to take roles away from the job description derived from a foreign language, the Nationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) proposed replacing the term “president” with “pravitel” which means “ruler”. According to the party, the term “president” has not taken “root completely” in Russia, according to the RIA Novosti report.

As per the report, LDPR has claimed that using “president” has “always embarrassed us”. In its argument, the pro-Kremlin party suggested that the term “president” was used for the first time in the 18th century in the United States and “much later [it] spread throughout the world”.

"In our country, by historical standards, this is generally a new word, and until it takes root completely, you can safely replace it. For example, with the phrase "head of state" or the word "ruler". Both are more understandable to the Russian ear," the LDPR said, as per a Russian state-run news outlet.

The party’s proposal to refer to Vladimir Putin as “ruler” comes over four months after the Russian leader ordered the “special” military operation in Ukraine which Kyiv has claimed to take the lives of thousands of Ukrainians. In the wake of the war, several European nations have accused Putin of "genocide" in Ukraine and have sanctioned the leader along with senior Russian government officials. 

The long-time leader of LDPR, Vladimir Zhirinovsky had proposed calling Putin the “supreme ruler” multiple times before he died in April. According to media reports, Zhirinovsky wanted to bring about the change to create a distance from the job title that has its roots in foreign languages.

State Duma rejected the proposal to call Putin ‘Supreme Ruler’ in 2020

Remarkably, LDPR’s proposal to call Putin Russia’s “Supreme Ruler” was rejected by State Duma in 2020. At the time, as per the Newsweek report, Kremlin had said that Putin had no view on the proposal. Pavel Krasheninnikov, co-chair of a government commission looking into constitutional changes, told the Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper in January 2020, that there were “some very curious proposals” among the ones that are put forward. At the time, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov had also said, “Right now all this is at the discussion stage” and that “President Putin has no view on this”.

Image: AP