Parents who renamed their son Putin to honour the Russian president have requested to have his original name restored.
The Dzhurayev family who moved to Russia from their native Tajikistan in the early 2010s
officially renamed their one and a half-year-old-son Rasul Putin but have now sought permission from officials to change it back, according to the head of the registry office in the town of Aleksandrov, 90 kilometres north-east of Moscow.
“The parents have approached us: They, let me put it this way, feel sorry for what they did,” Yekaterina Belous told a local newspaper.
“They want to give the child the name he received at birth.”
She did not explain why the parents suddenly changed their mind.
The child’s grandfather is an ardent supporter of Putin and inspired the name change.
When reporters from the Novy Gorod Aleksandrov newspaper visited the family’s house outside in 2016, they found a giant Putin carpet hanging on the wall alongside several framed photographs of the Russian leader.
The grandfather also showed off an array of collectible plates and mugs with Putin’s image displayed in his family’s living room.
Rakhman Dzhurayev, the child’s grandfather, told the local newspaper at the time he once heard that someone in Egypt named a child Putin: “So then I thought why wouldn’t we have this in Russia?”
Local authorities said they had no legal grounds to refuse the family’s request to change the boy’s name.
A year after Rasul was named Putin, the parents of his newborn cousin named him Shoigu in honour of the Russian defence minister.
The head of the registry said on Monday they have not received any requests from Shoigu’s parents to rename the boy.
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