Families in Syria are naming their sons “Putin” after Russian President Vladimir Putin to show their gratitude for Moscow’s support to the Bashar al-Assad regime in the six-year civil war in the country, Syrian Ambassador to Moscow Riad Haddad said on Friday.
The tradition of naming children after leaders’ surnames was common in the early Soviet Union times, when names such as Vladlen – after Vladimir Lenin – and Elem – a composite of Friedrich Engels, Lenin and Karl Marx – became popular.
Haddad, who has been the Syrian envoy to Moscow since the war began, also pointed out that Russian was now the second language in Syrian schools, made as a “gesture of gratitude to the Russian people from Syria”.
“Thanks to the efforts of the Moscow Embassy and with the approval of President Assad, Russian is the second language taught in Syrian schools. We have opened Russian faculties in all of the country’s universities, while children receive tuition from the seventh grade,” he said while addressing Russia’s Upper House of Parliament in Moscow, according to Russia Today.
Of late, President Putin has heightened Russia’s military and diplomatic support to Syria. It has helped Assad’s forces retake key cities such as Aleppo and also Opposed moves by the United Nations to criticise Damascus for the chemical attack in a Syrian earlier this month, blamed on Assad’s forces.
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