A family who named their son Putin to honour the Russian president Vladimir Putin now seemingly regret the decision and wants his original name back.
The Dzhurayev family moved to Russia from Tajikistan in the early 2010s and officially renamed their son when he was one-and-a-half years old to Rasul Putin.
Now records show that Rasul's parents have 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.
She did not explain why the parents suddenly changed their mind and while opposition to the war was not mentioned, it is highly likely this is the reason.
“They want to give the child the name he received at birth," Belous said.
The child’s grandfather is an ardent supporter of Putin and inspired the name change.
The family's house had a huge Putin carpet hanging on the wall in 2016, alongside several framed photographs of the Russian leader according to the Novy Gorod Aleksandrov newspaper.
Rakhman Dzhurayev, the child’s grandfather, told the local newspaper at the time he once heard that someone in Egypt named a child Putin he thought: "Why wouldn’t we have this in Russia?"
The news has been removed from the publication’s website, but Belous’s remarks are still featured on a televised program.
A year after Rasul was named Putin, the parents of his newborn cousin named their baby Shoigu in honour of the Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu.
The head of the registry said they have not received any requests from Shoigu’s parents to rename the boy.
In 2021, a Swedish family attempted to register the name Putin for their newborn child, but Sveriges Radio says that the name registration was declined without providing an explanation.
Russian President Putin is now notorious for cronyism, corruption, repression and particularly, military aggression.
Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, there have been around 20,451 people who have died.
