Ingushetia renames its leader

On September 7 the Ingushetian parliament passed a law in the first reading to remove the title of President of the Republic and replace it with Head of the Republic of Ingushetia from January 1, 2011. The current (for now still) president of Ingushetia Iunus- bek Evkurov repeated the words of his Chechen counterpart that there is only one president in the country and that changing the tile of the Republic's leader does not diminish his significance. The second and third reading of the draft law will be concluded by the end of this year. Ramzan Kadirov, the leader of Chechnya and now the Head of the Republic of Chechnya was the initiator of this change; he was supported by all the north Caucasus republics as well as some other entities within the Russian Federation. Not everybody welcomes this initiative however; in particular the initiative was criticised in Tatarstan and in the Cherkezyan organisation, Adige Khaze. They think that the status quo should be maintained, however it is likely that they will eventually bow to change, like the rest of the Russian Federation.