An effort is underway to rename a street in central Russian city of Ryazan after United States President-elect Donald Trump who is considered an ally of Russia.
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A group of residents of the central Russian city of Ryazan launched a petition on the change.org website to rename the currently-named Bezbozhnaya (godless Street) after Trump.
The petition’s promoters say that after the document collects enough signatures they will forward it to the city legislature.
“The street name Godless itself contradicts Russian values and insults the feelings of believers. And Donald Trump who has recently won the presidential elections in the United States is a big friend of Russia and a protector of traditional values,” reads the message accompanying the petition.
Two Ryazan streets named Godless Street – first and second, got their names soon after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution owing to the major anti-clerical drive that pushed the people towards atheism.
Reports say the word bezbozhnaya is a commonly-used simple variation of the word atheist.
In Russia law encourages that any petition that gathers at least 100,000 signatures of support becomes a draft law and must be considered by parliament inasmuch as the signatures must be gathered on the special government portal and come from registered Russian citizens
However, the head of Ryazan’s city Place Names Commission, Nikolay Bulychov, told local journalists that the renaming was unlikely, because the city authorities have an established position that streets in Ryazan should not be named after persons.
It will be recalled that President Vladimir Putin was among the national leaders to congratulate the new US president-elect. Trump’s victory was welcomed by many Russians as an event that offers the chance to improve relations between the two nations.
