This city is renaming a major district after Vladimir Putin
Forget about Soho, Tribeca and downtown for a night out – Grozny’s hottest new district is named after Vladimir Putin.
The capital city of Chechnya voted overwhelmingly to rename an area of more than 200 hectares of the city ‘Putinsky’.
‘Sky’ is a suffix in the Russian language for forming adjectives – names with this suffix are a descriptive applied to an ancestor.
The district will have more than 2 million square meters of housing, mosques, kindergartens and other facilities. The transport area will also be modernised.
In 2008, Grozny’s central avenue was renamed Putin Avenue – so it’s no surprise that 99% those who voted supported the creation of Putinsky.
The head of the region also clarified the decision was made as a ‘sign of deep gratitude from the Chechen people to Putin’.
Chechnya is a republic of Russia, between the Caspian and Black Seas – and is led by Ramzan Kadyrov, referred to as ‘Putin’s attack dog’.
The republic of Chechnya came into the news last week after banning all songs that do not have a tempo between 80 and 116 beats per minute, in a bid to stop Western music ’polluting’ their republic.
The new law was introduced by Chechnya’s culture minister, Musa Dadaev, who said he hopes it promotes more traditional music and dancing.
He said: ‘We must bring to the people and to the future of our children the cultural heritage of the Chechen people.
‘This includes the entire spectrum of moral and ethical standards of life for Chechens.
‘Borrowing musical culture from other peoples is inadmissible.’
The new rules mean world music including the samba, trance and waltz music will be banned – but the popular Russian military song ‘Victory Day’ will also be banned, as it’s at 126 BPM.
Chechnya – officially a part of Russia – has also cracked down on other forms of dissent which they label as ‘Western’, and enacted many anti-LGBTQ laws.
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