Vladimir Putin and his followers are increasingly turning Russia into an autocracy. The nationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) wants to go a step further and give it the title “Pravitel”, which means something like ruler or ruler.
The LDPR had suggested: replacing the term “president” because it is not yet “fully entrenched” in Russia, Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported. With its proposal, the far-right party with the misleading name also wants to distinguish itself from the US. The term originated there in the late 18th century and only spread worldwide much later.
“More understandable” for Russians
You can therefore safely replace him with ‘ruler’, which is ‘more understandable to the Russian ear’, argues the LDPR in its motion. Authoritarian rulers have sat in the Kremlin for centuries, but there has been a president for more than 30 years.
Former party leader and ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who died in April, had suggested several times in the past that the head of state be called “Supreme Ruler” in order to ban foreign terms from Russia as official designations.
Putin compared himself to Tsar
A motion to that effect was recently rejected in the Russian parliament. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at the time that Vladimir Putin had no opinion on the proposal. It is not known what Putin, who is himself a member of the United Russia party, thinks about this now. He may not be averse to the title: in April he compared himself to Tsar Peter the Great. His campaign against the Swedes can be equated with the invasion of Ukraine – because both are about “reclaiming Russian soil”.
Foreign words would also reportedly be banned from Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. Work is underway on a dictionary in which terms borrowed from English will be replaced with Russian variants, Vladimir Konstantinov, chairman of the regional parliament, told the Crimean 24 broadcaster. We must end the “dominance of foreign words” because it is “dangerous to our culture and language,” he said.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
